Yakovlev Yak-7B – the Soviet fighter

In March 1940 A. Yakovlev's Trial Design Bureau received an official task to construct a school-training aircraft, based on the fighter I-26 (future Yak-1). Design work for I-27 (UTI-26) began much earlier, on January 25. The training plane differed from the fighter in that, it had a two-seater cabin, closed by a common hood with individual sliding parts. UTI-26 was armed with two SKAS machine guns. In the summer of 1941 there was a big shortage of fighters at the front. The chief engineer of Yakovlev TDB, K. Sinelshchikov, proposed to convert the training plane into a fighter. Yakovlev reacted negatively to this idea at first, but, after studying the proposal more carefully, he agreed. The design work was carried out by a brigade of designers, led by Sinelshchikov in factory no. 301. The aircraft is equipped with motor-cannon SVAK, rear seat armor plate, protected fuel tanks, three guide rails for hanging and launching jet unguided projectiles under each console. The rear cabin remained, but the second control set was dismantled from it (the empty space behind the pilot's seat was used for various purposes: for transporting cargo and technical personnel, when rebasing to a new destination, for installing a camera or an additional 100 l fuel tank). It was covered with a special cover. In terms of flight and combat characteristics the new fighter did not come close to the Yak-1, and even surpassed it in some characteristics. After the tests were immediately followed by an order from the Main Defense Committee to start serial production of the fighter. According to August 14 and 26 T orders of the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry Yak-7 (this is how the plane is marked in serial production) at factory no. 301 and no. 153 (Novosibirsk) begun a serial production. Before evacuation, factory no. 301 managed to produce only 51 fighters. Serial production continued until July 1944; 6399 Yak-7 fighters of all modifications were produced. The aircraft was removed from the armament lists only in 1946.

The model can be made in simpler or more complex versions. In the complex version it is planned to make niches for machine guns with machine guns, a transparent canopy of the cabin, niches of the chassis, the interior of the cabin and the production of detailing of the released chassis. It is also possible to make movable control plates. In addition to all these complications, the remaining version with an opaque cockpit canopy, without cockpit interior detailing, with included chassis and closed niche hatches, without machine guns and movable rudders will be easily made even by a modeler with little experience, working under the supervision of a more experienced colleague. Only this should not be the first more complex model You construct. Improved version of model No. 1 "Oriol - Bumaznoje Modelirovanije".