Soviet Combat Aircraft of the Second World War

Volume One: Single-engined Fighters

By Yefim Gordon and Dmitri Khazanov
Midland Publishing, Ltd., 1998
ISBN 185780-083-4
Price: $39.95

Reviewed by Tom Cleaver

Quick, what was the Yatsenko I-28?

Well, hmmm...with that name and designation it must be Russian, right? Yes. In fact it is a monoplane similar in shape to the Polikarpov I-16, with an enclosed cockpit, an armament of 2 7.62mm ShKAS and two 12.7mm ShVAK machine guns, powered by a Tumanskii M-87, which first flew June 1, 1939. It had a speed of 338 mph, and could climb to 16,400 feet in 6.3 minutes. The second prototype, powered by an M-88, had increased performance and was ordered into production in 1940. The crash of the first prototype on May 15, 1940 forced a delay in production, and ultimately cancellation when the I-26 (Yak-1) and I-301 (LaGG-3) prototypes took to the air that summer. However, as a result of the experience of tooling for production, the factory that would have made the I-28 was able to produce the Yak-1 much faster than it would have, with a major effect on the Eastern Front War that erupted a year later.

You have just had your knowledge of Soviet fighter aircraft of the Second World War greatly increased. You can expect even more of that to happen if you buy this book.

Written by Russian aviation historians Yefim Gordon and Dmitri Khazanov, who had full access to the files of the various design bureaus, this book is limited strictly to those types that were actually built and flown. I like to think I have put in some research on this subject, and outside of the main types - the Polikarpov, LaGG/Lavochkin, MiG and Yak products, almost everything else was new to me, or provided material I had never before seen.

The book covers in quick but definitive detail all major sub-types of all major production fighters flown in the Great Patriotic War, with information previously unknown to those of us in the West. For instance, of the 4,848 Yak-3s produced, 3,840 were built at Saratov, and 1,008 were built at Plant 31 in Tblisi, which had mastered the production of the type to such a degree that the leading Soviet Guards regiments that flew the Yak-3 asked that they be equipped only with the products of Factory 31 in 1945. As an interesting side point, this means that the Eduard Yak-3, based as it is on the two surviving Yak-3s in the world - both of whom came from that factory - are "Yak-3/Factory 31" aircraft, and differ in noticeable degree from the other Yak-3s delivered from the main factory. And we thought we were having trouble figuring out their paint schemes!

I was particularly interested in the section of the book (about 1/3) devoted to the fighter designs of Alexsandr Yakovlev. This no doubt stems from the fact that we have been literally overwhelmed with models of Yak fighters in the past two years. I now see that the Yak-7b which we recently received as a review sample from ICM is quite an important aircraft - reading this book and looking at the excellent profiles has got me ready to go with a kit I was thinking "ho hum" about only a week ago.

Did I mention the profiles? There aren't that many, but what is there is excellent. At a minimum, there are lots of interesting ideas here.

British mega-aviation historian Bill Gunston states in his forward, "I have no hesitation in claiming that this volume, together with the one dealing with twin-engined fighters, attack aircraft and bombers, are the first to cover the Soviet aircraft of the Great Patriotic War comprehensively and without errors." Sounds good to me, Bill.

In all seriousness, this is the best book on the subject I have found to date. I now feel like I actually know something about the subject, having spent and afternoon and an evening grazing through the book. I know I will be reading and re-reading it at length in time to come.