Yak-3

Description

This Yak-3 has been a regular at airshows in Europe and the UK for the last five years. It's in great shape, both inside and out, with a condition rating of 9 out of 10. The plane still has some of its original look. The Yak-3U was made to fight against the FW-190 and Bf-109G planes. It uses a strong Ash-82 radial engine, which fixed the problems of the old V12 engines. These engines were better because they could handle ground fire, which was important when the war shifted to supporting ground troops. Only a few Yak-3Us were made because the war was ending. Pilots liked them because they were easy to move around, like the older models, but a bit slower. To help new pilots learn to take off and land, the Yak-3U was turned into a two-seat trainer called the Yak-3UTI. This led to the Yak-11, a trainer with a 700hp Ash-21 engine. In the 1980s, some French businessmen bought 41 Yak-3s in Egypt. They worked with the original Yakovlev factory in Romania to rebuild five Yak-3s and some Yak-11s. The first Yak-3, F-AZIM, took 25,000 hours to rebuild and flew in 1994. It stopped flying after an engine problem in 2008. In 2019, a new owner bought F-AZIM and had it restored by F.A.S.T Brasschaat, a top warbird workshop in Europe, so it could fly again.