Yak-15 - the first Soviet jet fighter

[@Jon.A.Scholt]

I'm glad there is someone who is able to go to Russian aviation museums and record video since I, being in the US, am unable to. Love the channel and hope there will be more videos on aircraft featured in the museum.

[@AndreyPutilov]

That's why KZbin exists. And we can see museums in the US, Australia, Japan, etc all over the world.

[@alan6832]

It's a shame how western treachery forced the USSR, which was never rich, to put so much effort into it's military.

[@owenshebbeare2999]

@@alan6832 Two points: the first is that the Soviet leaders, especially Stalin, were bombastically expanding Soviet influence. Fighting against that is not "treachery", as we could hardly be expected to just allow Soviet influence to take over, and the second is that Stalin's expansionism caused your own country to spend massively on the military. Don't forget, your lot were sucking up to Hitler in the 1930's, and the invasiin of Poland waa a JOINT Soviet and Nazi action. Seriously, that senile git, FDR was far too close to Stalin, a man of known treacherous behaviour.

[@AndreyPutilov]

Yeah, USSR expanded to all Eastern Europe partially some Balkan countries (Jugoslavia), partially to Asian countries (definitely Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, etc... Korea, and China was not dependent on Soviet state but was communistic), to many African countries supporting communist rezimes, to Cuba, etc... Continue? Maybe Definitely western world was fighting USSR and pushing on it, but Moscow was not better, was just trying to push its side. It's their politics, they chosen it, and blaming western countries is just an old very old joke.

[@paulw1570]

Yo..what stops you visiting Russia? I've been several times as a UK tourist. Everyone was very hospitable ⭐

[@aaronlopez3585]

Excellent story telling, you covered every important point and kept the storyline moving at a good speed. Thank you.

[@craigwall9536]

I'm one minute and 20 seconds in and I have to stop and say this looks like a very nice video. It's incredibly valuable to me to see this perspective on jet development from the non-Western designers- of which Russia had in spades. Real talent- for years obscured by Cold War prejudices, but impossible to deny. As a designer myself, the content here is like a college course on jet fighter design philosophy and execution. Beautiful stuff. Thank you!

[@americansupervillain4595]

Fun Fact! A Romanian Yak-23 was acquired by America for evaluation from Yugoslavia (the plane was being shipped through Yugoslavia to Romania). Chuck Yeager was part of the flight team, and the test flights were at Wright Field in Dayton Ohio in Nov 1953. Flight tests showed US intelligence was correct with their assessment on how the plane would preform in flight, the build quality was considered to be poor when compared to western jets. After testing was completed the plane was shipped back to Yugoslavia (quietly of course) so it could complete it's journey to Romania.

[@loodwich]

When I was younger I made a plastic model of the Yak-23... it was not a good plane but I love it. Thanks for this, and you show me a museum that I want to go to.

[@moblinmajorgeneral]

It trained pilots headed for the MiG-15, so it worked out well

[@jamesk370]

It would seem that the YAK-15 could be described as the plane that taught the Soviet military how to operate in the jet age.

[@lapantony]

That's actually the reason why it was based off of Yak-3. Yakovlev wanted to give the pilots something they were mostly well familiar with. Paired with Yakovlev's planes being extremely easy to fly, it was as good as transitional planes come

[@DonDon45-i5h]

good analysis mr obvious

[@jonathanhudak2059]

​@@DonDon45-i5hbe nice

[@olivergs9840]

I'm not completely sure why, but I absolutely love this plane. There's something so special about its long, sloping nose, conventional gear, and tractor jet engine. This to me, is the most inspiring and beautiful of the first generation jet fighters, with the De Havilland comet being a close second. Thank you so much for making such a nice video, on such a wonderful machine

[@anzaca1]

Comet? You mean the Vampire, right?

[@justforever96]

@@anzaca1 Or he meant "jet aircraft", or forgot what he was typing halfway through.

[@justforever96]

No, I agree, something very cool about this plane. Love the Saab Tunnan as well. And the early MiGs, even with the silly cannon sticking out of the intake splitter. Although there are a ton of fascinating Soviet aircraft, most of them quite obscure in the West, known only to enthusiasts. Yak-25, 27, 28, the

[@olivergs9840]

@@justforever96 having reread it, I think you're both right

[@olivergs9840]

@@anzaca1 I think so, although both De Havilland Comets are beautiful in their own rights

[@riconui5227]

History shows an fascinating interplay between advancements in engine technology and advancements in aerodynamics. The advancements in engines generally, (but not always), leads, and then airframe design catches up. In the interim, there are transitional models that point the way to better performing airplanes. The Yak 15 is one such, as were the P-80, the Meteor, Aracomet. The Mig 15, the F-86 and what followed made Mach 2 fighters possible, once the engines could produce sufficient thrust. A kind of engineering pas-de-deux. Very well done vid. Thumbs up.

[@torfarstad119]

Love the way you cover these different planes areas of aviation. Always looking forward to your next video. Thank you so much!

[@Niinsa62]

As far as I know there are only two fighter jets to enter service, that were based on piston engine fighters. The Yak-15, and the Swedish SAAB J 21R. I live close to the Swedish Air Force Museum where they have one SAAB J 21R, and also the original propeller version, J 21A, so I've seen that one close up several times. But I've never seen much information on the Yak-15. I very much appreciate this video, and the effort going into making it. Thank you!

[@nicholasjohnson6724]

I'm in Australia, I love all the cold war Russian old birds ❤

[@ji3194]

Im from New Mexico USA and love Russian old birds as well.

[@N0rdman]

Being so close to Russia and being former military and not only seeing them but literally having them "buzzing your hair" during the cold war, my relationship to Russian/Soviet jets is more of a love/hate-relationsship. It's less fun when they come streaking in so low that the lookouts jump down on deck fearing they will crash into your superstructure.

[@mauriceouellette7514]

Bonjour a tous du Canada I read the comment of the other one about the cold war here east of North America we are just sqeeze between U.S.A. & Ussr if yoy pass by North Pole you can imagine all this dog fight in Canadian air space at this era i work on a military base at Montréal and my military commarade explain me in case of major conflict with Russia the Canada must stop the Russian for 36 hrs for give the time to American organized a counter attack he had 3 lines of defence with airport & Radar in norh pole the Dew line lower the mid Canada line more lower Pine three line it's a serious business not a joke cold war era

[@dbeasleyphx]

Skyships Eng, can you do a documentary on Soviet sound barrier testing/breaking? Great content!

[@welshpete12]

I made a model of this aircraft many years ago . It has always has been one of my favourite planes .

[@EFFEZE]

Bennnnnnfffffffff

[@SuperchargedSupercharged]

I really like your vids, like the way you present things.

[@vinayakdasaka4605]

👏👏👏👏👏. A complete presentation of Yak jet fighters please.

[@davidtoth8975]

6:32 Thank you for the comparison! I have never seen a fabric plane up close, and had no idea what it looked/felt like.

[@andrewphillips6563]

This unpronounceable museum looks as good as or better than most aviation museums I've been to in the US - and I've been to a lot! Thanks for another super-high quality video!

[@Gabriel.Vargas]

This was very nice to watch! Great video. Now I'm curious to know more about early soviet military jet planes

[@kikufutaba524]

Looks like an amazing museum.. Thank you for posting your wonderful video

[@markfergerson2145]

Very good video. It can't be emphasized enough that despite the engineers of the day, on all sides, not really knowing what they were doing, they still managed to lay the groundwork for today's amazing fighter planes by trying everything they could think of and not giving up. Yeah, building jet fighters based on prop plane airframes may seem silly or even stupid to some people today but you have to start somewhere. After all, the first prop planes were based on kites...

[@bdon661]

It was my privilege to visit this museum a few years ago. The quality and scope of the collection is utterly stunning! Many thanks to the museum leadership and staff for their thoughtful preservation and display of these artifacts.

[@Tom-Lahaye]

Very good episode, your script has a good flow and is very informative. The Yak-15 must be the only jet fighter which still had fabric covering on some surfaces.

[@Anonymoususer1930]

The yak 15 is pretty much a propellor plane with a jet engine

[@jeremysargent5037]

Love this video. Such an unusual subject for a change.

[@HoangLe-fu4xe]

Right in time for MAKS 2021! As always, I think this video has excellent quality, and hope you’ll release more English content about Soviet and Russian aircraft because information and especially history about these planes in English are mostly biased and far from accurate.

[@djaneczko4]

Wow, you just started a new series you should do sir! I would love to see a series on the evolution of military jets! I love the A12 SR71 video! You were right. I'd love to see you analyze the super saber and F4 Phantom. Of course starting with the first German jet fighter. Please and thank you good sir!

[@dconov]

AT 15:53 “it’s funny, while the old guy was the localization on the German, the newcomer became the localization of the British, the RD 500 was made on the basis of the Rolls Royce Derwint 5”. What is even more funny, is the lack of mention that the Soviets were having problems figuring out some of the metallurgical problems. They were being provided UK factory tours of jet development facilities. At one of them they wore shoes with mushy soles in order to collect the metal shavings from the machine tools, thus providing valuable metallurgical information. This claim is made in the book “Gas Turbines for Electric Power Generation, p362, by author S. Can Gullen, Cambridge University Press, 2019” Here is a tinyULED link to the Google Book edition: tinyurl.com/ca4av3ff

[@e.sstudios1015]

Just Amazing! Nice job on these contents!

[@mariojansen8016]

Excellent!! Great topic,good story-telling,loved it so please do more?

[@neilstern1694]

It's just wonderful that the internet allows us to share such interesting tails. I hope we can forever be free to do so. Thanks.

[@gehtdianschasau8372]

I've watched your 2 year old video about the tu-104 before this one. It's impressive, how much your pronounciation has improoved since then

[@worldoftancraft]

For the first time in this life, i am not seeing a Karen-monolinguist bullshitting about someone's accent, ethnos or culture. But just gives an adequate remark. That is what is impressive.

[@gehtdianschasau8372]

@@worldoftancraft I'm not worthy of your praise, i've posted so manny terrible comments,... I wish you clean and clear skies, soft landings, a nice life and please, for the sake of humanity, spread your genes!

[@charlesstauffer9831]

You always make an excellent presentation.

[@maximusflightymus3892]

The soviets were great practical engineers, you could give them limited resources and they would always find a way to make it work, innovation is a natural ability, not something that requires endless amounts of cash, thanks for uploading.

[@blasterelforg7276]

I invested many hours getting this plane in the World of Warplanes since I liked that slanted front mounted engine configuration. Light and nimble but underpowered.

[@royalanania3306]

,,

[@Nyx_2142]

Found the only person who plays World of Warplanes. Impressive.

[@royalanania3306]

@@Nyx_2142 it's a fine looking jet,and Iam sure it was effective for it's time.The Yakovlev company still to date makes good airplane's.

[@E2otic]

try it in War Thunder you'll know the pain and suffer

[@blasterelforg7276]

@@royalanania3306 mostly navy planes if they do military projects

[@liv4combat]

Very interesting. Impressive work Sir. Looking forward to future videos.

[@eddy8828]

Excellent video. Loved the explanation and narration. 👍👍👍❤️❤️❤️

[@donaldparlettjr3295]

The Yak 3 is one of my favorite aircraft. Jim has one next door hanger in Georgetown Delaware along with his Mig15. The lines are really clean. It powered by an Allison1710V12

[@kobenrivers1189]

I love the production thought process for this plane yak-3 body and a jet engine

[@peetz6301]

You gotta admire the ingenuity of those early jet plane engineers, simply amazing!

[@helmsgaming84]

More of these! The early jet days are an absolutely fascinating subject

[@AndreyPutilov]

PLEASE continue! Very interesting!

[@alangale5666]

Excellent Video, I always thought the Yak 15/17 and 23 were very elegant looking aircraft.

[@alm5992]

One of my favourite jets! I didn't know it had successors :O

[@sirpinkalot4784]

Yess we need more military aircraft videos!!! I love ur vids!

[@AlexAlex-dr9zc]

Very hard documentation work here gives a pretty complete story of this bird. Thumbs up guys !

[@johnattersley2135]

Very interesting. Enjoy watching your well presented videos.

[@Tool-Meister]

An excellent video. Thank you. A special thanks for the also excellent narration.

[@robbyowen9107]

Thanks Sky! Another great video!

[@paulmcfawn]

Thanks that was very interesting. Really enjoy your channel.

[@patrav5542]

Great information and films to watch. See and learning Soviet developments. 👍

[@joshpalmer7416]

Love early jets, so hard to find good videos on them especially the Soviet ones, thank you

[@garfieldfarkle]

Very well written script and video. It does a fine job of keeping things in context with the times when jets were a new, unknown frontier. One important aspect of Soviet acquisition of jet technology not mentioned is what they obtained in the U.S. through espionage. By theft of wind tunnel tests, metallurgy experiments, blueprints of aircraft and their engines, Soviet aircraft developers were able to advance much more quickly. Some of these Soviet agents stealing American jet aircraft intelligence during World War II included William Perl, Michael Cham, Joseph & Leona Franey, Loren Haas, Victor Perlo, Aleksandr Petroff, William Pinsly, William Plourde, William Remington, Gregory Silvermaster, Harold Smelzer, Jones Orin York and Amadeo Sabatini.

[@pjduker05]

I love some of the early Russian designs. This little bird just looks so pretty! The fusion between the jet engine from the future and the straight mono-wing design of WW2 fighter air craft makes for one sleek and sexy plane! I'd have loved to have seen her swatting Nazi planes from the sky.

[@davidgiles4681]

Interesting Story: The Russians were having problems with the internal parts of their jets. The metallurgy had some parts melting (due to the low temperature parts). So, the British (who had working Temperature parts) allowed the Russians to tour their aircraft factories. But, the Brits did not allow any device at all (that would record and or collect data). So, the Russians came with soled shoes (very thick and a soft rubber). As the Russians walked through the factory, their Shoes "gathered" the metals. The Russians returned home. They reversed engineered the "gathered" metal and "solved" the metallurgy problem. This is a true story.

[@steveburn8125]

Serious Russian ingenuity, impressive!

[@seeingeyegod]

always liked flying the Yak-15 in the PC sim IL2 but the very low ammo supply made it really difficult to do much damage

[@letsseeif]

Thank you for your excellent presentation of the first Jet Fighters of the then USSR!

[@IsaacKuo]

The Yak-15 sure looks nice. It would be nice for an R/C airplane, glider, or a kite, where the disadvantages of the jet exhaust position wouldn't be an issue.

[@rotorheadv8]

I don’t believe you can undersell the contributions this plane made to Soviet jet fighter development. They learned a lot about what did and did not work and what direction the designs needed go to. It was not just a starting point, but a successful starting point. On a similar note: My father flew the F86.

[@АндрейШмырев-ж3з]

Первым реактивным по эфективности стал МиГ - 9...самолет Як - 15 был самолетом для парадов...Что еще можно ожидать было от деревянного планера самолета Як - 3 с приделанным снизу трофейным германским мотором...😮

[@IO-zz2xy]

A brilliant video sir. Very informative. Thank you.

[@momotheelder7124]

It's a shame Soviet fighters don't get much attention-this one is historically important but almost unknown.

[@johngranato2673]

Great video----Thanks a million!

[@joeavent5554]

Please do a video on NATO designations for Soviet and Russian aircraft: fighters titled F names such as Farmer, Fishbed etc. Great video!!!

[@timbaskett6299]

To me, at least, the Yak-15 looks beautiful. It looks a lot like a jet air racer.

[@TheGearhead222]

Fantastic video Tovarische! Spaseeba! Vanya in Texas

[@kentleytaggart5816]

Very interesting stuff well produced .Rare vidios good history lession.

[@petesheppard1709]

Fascinating video! There was a lot of guesswork in all of those early jets; the rules of the new envelopes were just too different...

[@EuroScot2023]

That looks like a very interesting museum. I bet there were a lot of rude Russian words used manoeuvring the aircraft around those pillars though!

[@MrJimheeren]

They probably removed the wings. They do that in a lot of aircraft museums

[@jfrorn]

Excellent, thank you!

[@martentrudeau6948]

Good history and a good first jet plane and beginning for Soviet jet fighter planes.

[@rwl0323]

Beautiful bird! Thanks for sharing!

[@prehensileman7254]

I found an excellent channel today, thanks!

[@mackadresse6095]

Great to see the Russian side of aviation and super comments with passion.

[@glynnwadeson5605]

Excellent, authoritative and well presented video history.

[@stogmot1]

excellent documentary . Hope we can all be friends again real soon

[@cyborgbadger1015]

what an amazing sight all those red yak 15's must have been.

[@sfedroid]

I love the archive footage, this is a fantastic video. Great historical background and research about a plane that has fascinated me all my life. The MiG-15 gets all the kudos for its military success but I remember as a young boy seeing the old grainy photos of the Yak-15 (NATO reporting name Flora) in my already ancient Observer's Book of Aircraft and thinking "that's where it started, the oldest Soviet jet".

[@justforever96]

I think you are mistaken. The Yak-15 is the _Feather_ . The Yak-23 is the _Flora_ . It has a similar nose-mounted engine layout, but it uses a centrifugal compressor engine taken from British designs, and a tricycle landing gear, and it is a much "fatter" looking jet with a shorter tail and the cockpit mounted further back. It was a contemporary of the MiG-15 _Faggot_ . so the Yak-15 is the oldest Soviet jet, the Yak-23 is the Flora and was probably what you saw in the book. Although knowing Western publications, they may just have gotten the book wrong, and called the Yak-23 the Yak-15.

[@murraykriner9425]

Great history on early jets of the Soviet Union. Thank you.

[@fredferd965]

This is a very well thought out presentation! The airplane itself represents a quick, pragmatic solution of a problem - how to go from piston engine aircraft to jet aircraft. The Yak-15 is the design that Heinkel should have come up with when they designed the He-162. The Yak is a better idea all the way around.

[@justforever96]

Not really. This makes sense because they already had an aircraft and just needed to convert it to a fighter. Heinkel needed to design a whole new aircraft anyway, why go through all that trouble to end up with this? The ONLY reason the Soviets adopted this in spite of the enormous drawbacks of the configuration is because it was the only way to fit a jet engine to an existing airframe. There would be zero benefit in putting an engine in this configuration if you were free too adopt any configuration you wanted. In fact, it would be stupid. the only fighter Heikel could have based in on was the He-100, and that was a 1930s design, and the whole point was to develop a fighter that was made of wood and non-strategic materials. They couldn't have just had Messerschmitt convert the Bf 109, since it was already aging, and because they couldn't afford to lose conventional fighter production (same reason the Soviets waited until _after_ the war to do this, even if they had had engines available). Same for the Fw 190. In any case, of all the problems the He 162 had, the placement of the engine was not one of them. Nothing wrong with a dorsal engine, it is a better solution than hanging it under the nose blowtorching the underside of the fuselage and the runway, with conventional landing gear. The problems on the He 162 were all in how difficult it was to fly, and in the construction being weak. None of those would be solved by putting the engine in the nose instead.

[@elliotdryden7560]

That steel tailwheel makes perfect sense. Sparks? What sparks?

[@eugenebebs7767]

Doubles as afterburner igniter

[@startingbark0356]

@@eugenebebs7767 i dont think it had aftburner back then

[@basedhuman6520]

@@startingbark0356 It did, they started using afterburners after the MIG-9

[@startingbark0356]

@@basedhuman6520 the engine the yak-15 uses is a copy of junkers jumo 004B, which doesnt have an afterburner, the if it had afterburner it would have to be a copy of the junkers jumo 004E which was the first jet engine with after burner

[@startingbark0356]

@mandellorian cuz the germans invented the modern jet engine, the german engines didnt have afterburner but most features modern combat jets have Also thermo jets need afterburners to gain thrust, its litarly an jet engine powered by a piston engine Yak-15 uses a copy of the jumo 004B which doesnt have afterburner

[@steveshoemaker6347]

This is a very excellent video....Thanks very much....!

[@daystatesniper01]

Superb upload ,thank you Sir, i often wonder what WW2 treasures still exist on long abandoned bases in Russia

[@tonykeith76]

This plane was a love at the first sight for me

[@andrewharper3165]

Brilliant video, so my education in Soviets early jets begins.

[@sholinwright6621]

Great looking museum!

[@tempino273]

Couple weeks ago I got to BR 5.3 in war thunder in the Soviets...when I heard these flying around the first time in combat my rear end puckered a bit.

[@forthleft]

Great work. TY.

[@skeggjoldgunnr3167]

What's amazing is that a US F-22 pilot does not want an enemy MiG-21 Fishbed coming at it. That MiG was and still is a serious threat.

[@alext8828]

Best narrator in the business. Bar none.

[@никонико-д3ж]

Спасибо очень интересно.

[@ronaldwatson1951]

Interesting information but espionage was rampant when it came to jet aircraft during this era. But very informative, good video

[@jasontwynn7356]

The YAK jets are the the best jets. They have always been the leaders for fighter jets. That's just my opinion

[@justforever96]

But Yak didn't develop many jet fighters. They built this jet, and the Yak-17 derivative, they built the Yak-23, which is a bigger and fatter variant with a Nene engine, and which was beat by the MiG-15, except for the ones they exported to allies, and they built the Yak-38, which is interesting, but hardly what anyone would call a good fighter jet. that is it. And one could argue the Yak-25 and -27 are fighters, but hardly world beaters. Everything else Yak designed was a transport or bomber or trainer, or whatever.

[@Code3forever]

Being born just shortly before the Korean war started, I remember the Cold War really well. When the Soviet Union dropped the tsar bomba and the Cuban Missile Crisis, the fear of nuclear war was real. I can remember kids saying the Soviet planes were no match for our planes. I didn't believe that because I loved airplanes and I read everything I could on all aircraft. The Tu-95 was no B-52 or B-58 but it could fly the distance with nuclear bombs if our defences could not stop all of them. Were Soviet jets as good and sophisticated as ours? Maybe not, but they were good enough to wage war and inflict damage. Now, Russia builds high quality aircraft and they know how to design top quality planes. Look at the MC-21. I would prefer that over the 737MAX and perhaps one day, it will be allowed to compete in the West with Boeing and Airbus.

[@justforever96]

that all depends on how you quantify "good", really. This creator does a good job of explaining the difference between individual superiority and _engineering_ success (the "Chieftain" at World of Tanks has a similar philosophy). The question is not "which one would win in a one vs one dogfight", it is "does the machine meet the criteria it was designed to fulfill?", and Soviet machines did. They were crude in comparison, but for a fraction of the cost you got 80-90% of the capability at a far lower cost, and so they were easy to build in vast numbers. Western planners explained it all away by saying "yeah, but when they see the high kill/loss ratio Soviet pilots will lose morale and won't fight as well, so it doesn't matter if our guys are outnumbered massively", which always seemed like an unwise assumption to rely on. Everyone points out the kill record of US planes against Soviet ones, but those are almost always in small scale engagements of roughly equal numbers, where numerical superiority has no effect on the outcome, and/or the aircraft were not being flown by Soviet pilots which makes a big difference. I think we would have found mass formations of Soviet-piloted jets to be a very tough nut to crack indeed, even if per unit our jets were much more expensive and advanced. An F-4 could still only engage one enemy at a time.

[@valvlad3176]

2 of 23mm is not a shortcut. A couple of these rounds brought down anything flying.

[@wilberator9608]

The Yak-15's looks are underrated. Some people think it looks idiotically old-fashioned but I think it represents a transition from ww2 jet design to that of the 1950s.

[@123supporter]

Great video, as always!

[@emaheiwa8174]

Nice work! Are you going to make a video about the first japanese and british jets?

[@owenshebbeare2999]

The first Japanese jets would be interesting.

[@craigwall9536]

Beautiful. Like the Me-262 reproduction, re-engining with a modern small turbofan engine would result in a delightful sport aircraft; possibly slightly scaled down and with fixed landing gear. This one would be a candidate for homebuilding, especially with a wooden wing. Even the heat-related complications would mostly disappear with a modern turbofan engine, and range would go up, though for sport and recreational purposes no one really cares about speed and range. Finally- HOORAY for a narrator that actually KNOWS what he's talking about! So many of these videos are ruined by bad commentary!

[@BHuang92]

The Yak-15 was one of a very few aircraft that was successfully converted from piston to jet propulsion, the other notable aircraft was the Swedish SAAB 21R, a jet derivative of the SAAB 21.

[@davidchristensen6908]

Love your videos. You present the facts and explain the political views but you are most fair when it come to WHAT THE CAPABILITIES of an airplane are. Everyone watching your video love planes no matter what government development them.

[@Hooderlein]

I didn't hear you saying Messerschmitt P.1101 one single time, my friend. The P.1101 is the ancestor of the Yak-15 as well as of the Bell X-5 and the Saab 29 Tunnan.

[@mickdunn8423]

Apparently these little scooters had a phenomenal climb rate!