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Were the Poles in a position to buy foreign products? Hawker Hurricane, and/or Curtiss Hawk 75 come to mind as possible imports?
I disagree that light fighters were a waste. What else is the Yak-3?
Also the Italian SAI.403 would have made a name for itself if the war had continued.
The GR 14M powered the excellent Roussel 30. Also arrived too late.
All these aircraft could be substantially lighter and use less resources, thereby allowing more aircraft to be build.
It is the only option I see for the Poles.
There's lightweight fighters, early model Bf109, A6M2 Zero, Oscar and a few other early WW2 fighters might fit that definition with around 4000 lbs empty weights.
But the Yak 3 with a 5600 lbs empty weight can hardly be considered a lightweight, maybe light for a late WW2 fighter though.
There's quite a bit of disagreement between Wiki and a book I have on fighters, on the Yak 3, but Wiki appears to be right, the Yak was much lighter than what I posted. But the SAI S403 weighted around 4300 empty, not loaded, according to both.The Yak may have been 5600lb loaded.
The French light fighters ALL weighed around 4,000lb loaded except the Caudron-Renault 770 with the 16 cylinder Renault engine.
I am left wondering HOW some of these fighters achieved the claimed performance on the available power, straight line speed is one thing but climb and ceiling with low powered engines?