Yakovlev Yak-1 – The Soviet Standard

When version 0.5.1 rolled out, many players had high hopes for the newly introduced line of "Yak" Soviet fighters – and for good reason! After all, the Yak in its many forms was one of the most highly-produced aircraft in the history of World War II. Over the years, it evolved into a very popular fighting machine. To this day, it is considered the fighter equivalent of the Ilyushin IL series for attack aircraft because of its sheer dominating efficiency.

While the Yak may never have reached the altitude of the MiG, the power of a Messerschmitt, or the fame of a Spitfire, it was still one of the most prolific aircraft in history, and towards the start of the war, Yaks were among the best piston-engined fighters around. Today, we want to shine a light on their accomplishments by reviewing the first model in their pack – the Yak-1.

History 

When World War II began, the Soviet Union was in a loose alliance with Germany. After the 1939 invasion of Poland by Germany, the two nations agreed to divide up the conquered territory between them. The entire war may  have turned out differently if Germany hadn’t then decided to turn on its allies, culminating in a massive invasion in 1941 called Operation Barbarossa.

Placed in the unexpected position of having to fight back, the Soviet Union was woefully under-armed. The Soviet soldiers were poorly equipped and trained, while its tanks and planes were old and hopelessly outmatched against the enemy. While aid would soon come in the form of the lend-lease programs with the US and the UK, for a long period, the USSR had to fend for itself. With that in mind, the industrial giants of the country cranked into action to fill the gap. As a result, amidst the numerous obsolete aircraft that Germany faced during Operation Barbarossa, were a handful of newer ones. One of these was the Yak-1.

The Yakovlev Technical Bureau was a relatively new designer, having been formed only a few years earlier in 1934 by renowned engineer Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev. After producing some impressive sports aircraft in the 1930s, the Bureau had turned its attention to combat planes. The early designs of what would become the Yak-1 were known officially as the I-26. It was designed in response to a 1938 government requirement for a fighter plane constructed mostly of wood and fabric to allow for easy maintenance, repair and mass-production.

The first prototype was less than successful. It first flew in January 1936, but overheating problems meant that it made over fifteen emergency landings. Eventually, the inevitable happened and a test pilot was killed.

A second prototype was then built. While an improvement on its predecessor, it still suffered from some overheating problems and it was now over the maximum weight for the specification. This resulted in the prototype failing government testing, a real problem when mass-production had already been ordered due to the increased hostilities of the war. As a result, production effectively commenced while testing and adjusting of the design continued.

By the time of Operation Barbarossa, over 8,000 changes to the blueprints had been made. Just over 400 aircraft had been produced, although many were still incomplete or awaiting assembly. Most of the first Yak-1s perished during the immediate battles, but the plane proved its worth with exceptional maneuverability and firepower at low levels that put it on an even footing with the Messerschmitt Bf. 109 planes it fought against.

As Operation Barbarossa wound down, the Soviet Union geared up. Recognizing that the Yak-1 was an excellent plane for the time, production was ramped up. Over the course of the war, nearly 9,000 Yak-1 planes were produced. While they started to lag behind in the technological race of the war fairly quickly, they became the foundation for a whole chain of improved designs. Yak-1 planes served throughout the duration of the war and could be seen in action wherever the Soviets were. A few were even flown by the ladies of the 586th Regiment, one of the few composed entirely of women.

Although the Yak-1 was never the fastest, toughest or fiercest plane of the war, it was a solid workhorse that fulfilled its task well. In total, over 37,000 piston-engine planes based on the Yak-1 design were built – more than any other plane in the whole war.

As for the Yakovlev Design Bureau, it continued to make planes once the war had ended, and still exists today under the name of Yak Aircraft Corporation, based in Moscow. The Yak designation is still in use for the modern jet fighters it designs and produces now.

The Yakovlev Yak-I in the game

Technological Progression

You can find the Yak-1 in the Soviet tech tree as part of the second branch of fighter aircraft. As it is a successor of the Polikarpov-line, the Yak-1 (which was originally named I-26) comes after the I-17 on one of the branches leading from the I-16 (e). For only 15,800 XP and a modest price of 328,000 Credits, you can take this interesting tier V fighter out for a spin on your favorite map.

Profile and Tactics

The Yak-1 was designed to provide support for IL-2 attack aircraft during World War II. As a consequence, it has a pretty low optimum altitude of 750-1,000m. However, most of the time you’ll end up fighting even closer to the ground to make use of your excellent low-profile abilities. What sets the Yak apart from other aircraft is its outstanding maneuverability. Only the Japanese A6M2 is stronger in this department. With a low average time to turn of just 13 seconds, you get great agility, (the second-best of all tier V planes), which gives you high performance in dogfights due to your ability to out-turn almost any opponent. The Yak-1 is a classic example of a fighter plane that excels at horizontal combat. Your turns will always be tighter, your speed will often be higher and overall you should always be in the better position against any fighter planes of your own or even higher tiers.

However, as soon as you pitch up above the horizon, you’ll notice that this aircraft has apparent drawbacks in terms of its vertical performance. In spite of what the stat sheet suggests, the Yak-1’s rate of climb is below average, due to a rather weak engine.  Watch out for quick stall-outs and avoid fighting with your nose up. Climbing to higher altitude under pressure will be almost impossible, both on offence and especially on defense. Take this into account when preparing your strategy by avoiding switching to targets that are higher up once you’re close to the ground.

Firepower will remain an issue with the Yak-1 as well. Although it starts off with an above-average 78 score on the stock configuration (which places it third among the seven fighters of its tier), it doesn’t really improve from there. Even with the upgraded gun, you never go beyond 82 firepower. While this is okay and can be enough for skilled snipers, beginners will likely need multiple runs to take out most enemies. This is a little disappointing, because almost all of the other fighters of this tier upgrade to stronger tier VI guns at some point, while the Yak-1 stays underpowered, carrying only a modest tier IV cannon, even though it’s a tier V plane. Hence you’ll have to watch out when engaging attack aircraft. Staying too long at the rear of a heavy plane can be dangerous. A structure as weak as the Yak won’t sustain prolonged rear-gun fire for a very long time. You should always try and angle yourself to your opponent to avoid being in a direct line of fire.

Attacking ground targets is also not a good idea with the Yak-1, because you will take too much damage in the process and won’t deal very much with your guns anyway. The RS-82 rockets help in that regard, but they aren’t really a recommended alternative. In close dogfights, you’ll need all the maneuverability you can get to keep having an upper hand on your opponents.

Basically, the Yak-1 is a great plane as long as you know and respect its limits. It is a great horizontal fighter, capable of taking on even higher-tiered opponents – as long as they stay close to the ground. In 1-on-1 duels, you’ll almost always come out victorious, due to your maneuverability advantage. Just watch out that you don't get tangled up with anything that has strong ‘Boom & Zoom’ potential. Great climbers such as the P-51A Mustang can just zoom into the sky and leave the Yak-1 in the dust to finish it off on their way down. Don’t even bother messing with these – especially if you see that they’re already above you as you’re coming in. Keep low, use your maneuverability in combination with the terrain, and try to pick out your foes one by one for best results.

Upgrades

As with many other fighters of its tier, the Yak-1 doesn’t have many interchangeable modules. In addition, two of the available extra modules don’t really offer much of an upgrade in terms of performance and are often disregarded by most pilots. Still, there is value in examining the rest of the pieces the plane comes with in order to maximize its potential.

Airframe

One thing is certain; you won’t go very far on the weak stock version airframe. With only 135 HP, the Yak-1 ranks almost last in terms of durability for the whole tier. 3,100 XP and 50,000 credits will buy you the upgraded Yak-1B airframe, which will give you an additional (and much needed) 25 HP and significantly reduce the plane’s weight. As a bonus, this will further improve your diving speed by an impressive 30 km/h. Given the frail nature of your plane, you should definitely purchase the upgraded airframe, especially as it is also needed if you later choose to switch to the stronger machine guns.

Engine

The engine of the Yak is somewhat peculiar and takes some getting used to. At first, it seems to be very powerful and boasts almost the same rate of climb stats as the Spitfire I. Unfortunately though, the in-game performance of the Yak-1 doesn’t do the numbers justice. Your engine takes a lot of time to kick into gear and doesn’t really utilize all of its horse power – especially in vertical combat. In fact, whichever engine you choose, you need to be prepared for quick stall-outs when pitching up, and a below average 10 second-boost, even on the top configuration.

To counter that somewhat, you could consider upgrading to the tier VI M-105PD engine. However, if you choose to save the 39,000 Credits, you could skip straight to the stronger M-105PF, with which you’ll get double the stat boost for half the weight of the engine. As soon as you upgrade, you’ll get an additional 20 km/h to your speed as well as 2.3 instead of just 1.0 m/s added to your rate of climb. One good point is that there is practically no loss of maneuverability with any of the upgraded engines.

Weapons

The only other machine gun that’s available for the Yak-1 requires the improved airframe, but it doesn’t really provide much of an upgrade in terms of punch. Meanwhile, the under-powered 12.7mm BS only delivers an additional 4 points to the firepower meter, although at least it doesn’t slow your aircraft down as other upgraded weapons do. In fact it actually adds to your speed, even if only marginally, with an average 3 km/h at different altitudes. Overall, both configurations will give you only around 9 seconds of non-stop fire power before the machine guns overheat. On the plus-side, they cool down almost as quickly once the deed is done. Your effective firing range starts at 900m, although you should let your opponents get to at least 500m or less to be more accurate.

The six available RS-82 rockets add an additional 40 kg to your payload, and will slow your plane down by 60 km/h. Also, strapping on the extra weight takes away 2 m/s from your climb rate and will slice somewhat into your maneuverability (although it will mostly go unnoticed). As attacking ground targets is not really your role with the Yak-1 anyway, we don’t recommend using the rockets, especially if you are a beginner. The RS-82 rockets are of a very low tier (tier II) and only deal a small 450 damage each. Given the matchmaking weight of the Yak, on most maps an average ground target will have around 1500 HP, which means that you’ll have to use up almost all of your six rockets just to destroy one meager target. Usually, you won’t be in a position to attack ground targets anyway. On larger maps, it will take too long to fly from one target to the next, and even if you survive the trip, you won’t be able to take the prolonged Anti-Aircraft gun fire once you engage the ground target. We therefore recommend that you skip mounting the rockets and preserve your fighter’s main strengths, which lie in its quickness and maneuverability.

Equipment & Consumables

The low HP of your plane can be improved by installing Reinforced Covering II to help increase the resistance of your wings, fuselage and tail. Although it’s just a minor 10% bonus, the 125,000 credit cost is well worth it, given the weak durability of your plane.

The second piece that you should acquire is the Improved Reflector Sight. The guns of the Yak-1 are not the most accurate, and installing this little 10% helper will allow you to be more precise, especially at greater distances.

There is no other ‘must-have’ piece of equipment to fill out the last slot. It’s up to you to choose the one you want. Our suggestion would be the Aircraft Polish I to further maximize the potential of your above-average airspeed. This will come in handy on bigger maps when you will be racing against the stronger-engined German and British heavy fighters in order to be first to a target.

As far as consumables are concerned, none of them are really indispensable. Sure, you could add more power to your rather weak engine by using the 100-octane Gasoline, but over time this will cut too deeply into your finances (each one of those is 5,000 credits a pop). It may be better to just learn to overcome the limitations of your engine as described above.

If you desperately want to spend money, you can use it on a precautionary item such as the Manual Fire Extinguisher or the First Aid Dressing Package. However, don’t expect to be using them much, as the Yak-1 tends to go down extremely quickly once it takes damage. Likewise, due to the low HP, there isn’t much need for the Pneumatic Restarter.