COBI Yakovlev Yak-3 Set 5862

COBI's Yakovlev Yak-3 is built from 140 blocks, 18.5 cm long with a 20 cm wingspan. All markings are printed; the set contains no stickers.

The French took theirs home

The Normandie-Niémen was a French fighter squadron that fought on the Eastern Front, flying Soviet aircraft under Soviet command — Free French pilots sent east in 1942 because de Gaulle wanted France represented on every front where Germany was being fought.

They ended the war flying Yak-3s and had a reputation among Soviet pilots that was close to reverent. When they went home in June 1945, Stalin made them a gift: they were allowed to keep their aircraft and fly them to France. Forty Yak-3s took off from Elbing and landed at Le Bourget, still in Soviet markings with the French tricolour added.

It remains the only time a foreign unit was permitted to leave the Soviet Union with Soviet combat aircraft.

Small on purpose

The Yak-3 was one of the smallest and lightest fighters of the war, and it was designed that way because Soviet engines were less powerful than German ones. If you cannot add power, remove weight: the aircraft was stripped to a wooden-and-metal airframe with a short wing and minimal fuel, giving it a power-to-weight ratio that let it out-turn and out-climb almost anything below 5,000 metres.

Luftwaffe units were issued a standing instruction to avoid combat below that altitude with Yakovlev fighters that had no oil cooler under the nose — which was the recognition feature of a Yak-3.

Specifications

Pieces: 140 · No stickers
Model dimensions: 18.5 × 20 × 9.5 cm (7.3 × 7.9 × 3.7 in)