Evaluation of the Soviet Yak-23 by USAF

[Oldbmwr100rs]

It looks very much like a P-51 with a jet engine cobbled together in the forend! It's likely that the P-51 was used as an influence in the design simply due to it's capability and performance during the war. Interesting plane, no O2 or cabin pressurization restricts it pretty heavily in real combat though. Probably made a nice advanced trainer though.

[yz1sg]

Romanian pilot Mihail Dijakonu defected to Yugoslavia on a Yak-23 jet on 24.July 1953. The news of this event was not made public for 35 days. Yak-23 was completely intact and it was tested in VOC. Yak was soon disassembled and transferred in crates to the USA for testing. The airplane was turned over to the Americans and tested at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. For more than 40 years, these tests have remained a secret for the history of American Air Force.

[Cavelson]

That's why we have 4077th sqd.

[Cavelson]

For a right pile of money you can "borrow" everything.

[ReptilicusFinch]

What's the music used?

[langkaers09]

hahhaha "no real effort at making an aerodynamically clean high performance fighter"

[CharlieDoan]

FAT Yak-23

[WilczynWarszyc]

Ralfilukas: Just from Yugoslavia. This Yak was transported by railway to Albania and was "borrowed" by Yugoslavia to USA.

[Vyun1969]

stupid yankee lol

[TurbineDogSevenFour]

Not a bad little jet. Cheap and very light with a climb rate that embarassed anything the west had until the mid 50s.

It would be comparitively easy to build one today with a Wiliams or J-85 turbine in it, and would be probably one of the safer, funner jet warbirds if they did so.

[Tony27nine]

Excellent - an air force (I'm guessing) evaluation video...... with dramatic musical accompaniment!!

Just bought an EDF model kit of one of these and looking forward to starting the build (I'm a sucker for jets of this era) Just hope it flies better than it looks :-)

[christof139]

Yeah, Tito of Yugoslavia didn't appreciate Stalin or his 'nice' methods & did not support the USSR during the Cold War to any great degree.

[Ralfiukas]

WTF??? How yankees get the YAK???

[TEEEEEEEEJ]

Ralfiukas,

Via Yugoslavia. The Romanian pilot defected to Yugoslavia and the Yugoslavs allowed the US to take it away for a short period to evaluate it. After evaluation it was returned to Yugoslavia.

[joshua81em]

@Ralfiukas We bought it on Ebay you pig!

[Crawlerz246]

@joshua81em lol guess they have everything on eBay

[123456789mischief]

@Ralfiukas somebody probably defected

[WMuckaMW]

@Ralfiukas по линглизу )

[xschweinable]

@Ralfiukas they bought this one in Yugoslavia

[damaged01]

Not to knock russian engineering, but that has got to be the ugliest, most primitive looking combat jet aircraft ever made.

[rcaddict72]

there are several examples of this kind of aircraft "style" from that era...not only russian. The aerodynamics and the turbine/jets werent quite on a par so we had basically, conventional wings and tails with turbojets either mounted like cigars on the wings or down the fuselage and the pilot sat above it.

[zJoriz]

Very true. The stuff you get to fly in IL-2 1946 is very odd and, at times, irritatingly hard to fly. And that's just a computer game, don't wanna know how it was for the real guys...

[evilferret132]

the ones down the fuselage make it much more monuverable

[evilferret132]

its one of the first

and it looks like a mig 15

[fantom58]

It's an upgraded Yak-15. The Yak-15 was a quick lashup of a German-designed jet engine (Jumo) and the Yak-3 (a prop-driven fighter) airframe.

[Lumotaku]

lol it just about was if you look it was a rush job and it was intended to be flying to surprise the west. Meantime they were taking their time designing the much more capable swept wing mig 15. if you look at the body it looks like a regular prop plane they put a jet on.

[shotfirer1972]

really good vid. thanks for that!

[phonix032]

fugly little bugger but then again some of the most ugliest planes are very good at their jobs for example the A-10 and the su-25

[kumapub]

うそ～！！アメリカ空軍がYak23を鹵獲していたとは知らなか­った。

[AviatorulOltean]

Yak-23 is the first jetfighter in service in Romanian Air Force! It was soon replaced by the Mig-15 and Mig-17 aircrafts!A small number of them was converted by the romanians in biplaces for training!

[JohnyKage]

Yak-ul 23 din clip este romanesc Mihail Diaconu care a dezertat in Yugoslavia si mai departe yugoslavi lau dat americanilor.

[code123ns]

If I'm not mistaken, the ones in the video were of Romanian origine. First transfered to Yugoslavia, and then, after some tests here, to USA.

[glhx2112]

wow, didn't know this existed...hmmm....

[Northside777]

Thanks for the film clip! Interesting that they would add dramatic music in the style of a newsreel. The descriptions of the Yak 23 design characteristics are actually factual and straight-forward. The MiG 15 was the main concern of the USAF when this film was made.

[romancejet]

The evaluation of this Yak-23 at Wright Field in the 1950s was a closely guarded secret that didn't become generally known until about four decades later, so it's astonishing to see a film that looks very much like a newsreel intended fr the public. Where did you find this?

[Strykaas]

This must be an excerpt from military archives... Those films that were shown to US pilots at the time... Don't you think so ?

By the way, what did the Soviet pilot become ?

[DragonSukhoi]

this poses a unique look at the aircraft