Yak-9D, 1944

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greybeard

Airman 1st Class
258
32
Oct 25, 2011
Is there any evidence that Yak-9D built in 1944 received the new fuselage, introduced with Yak-9T, having cockpit moved 40 cm aft?

Cheers,
GB
 
I think you mean the Yak-9M that was the Yak-9D basically with the moved cockpit back of 40cm like for the T variant although the armament was still the 20mm cannon instead of the 37mm cannon NS-37. The changing was introduced in order to unify the assembling process of both variants and make switching between both of them easier. The assembling was started in May 1944 by the factory No.153 and lasted until June 1945. There were 4239 such modified Yaks built.

One of the Polish Yak-9Ms ...

yak9m-2.jpg
 
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Thanks for your prompt and detailed answer.

Indeed, I meant just an hypothetical "late" version of the Yak-9D.

Regards,
GB
 
You are welcome. :)

And here the comparison... the Yak-9D and the Yak-9M with the moved cockpit back clearly seen ... please notice the antenna mast that was a little bit angled in order to keep the length of the antenna wire the same.
yak9d.jpg


jak-9m.jpg
 
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Thanks for the further detail. Actually, a Yak-9D having Yak-9M fuselage would have been indistinguishable from this latter...
 
At glance yes it would. Of course there was more of improvments , for instance a better covering of wings, an engine of more power. But these planes really looked almost the same.
 
Geo, the length of the fuselage of the Yak-9D/M and the Yak-9T was the same and was of about 8,5m (other sources say 8,55m). It seems that the total length of the Yak-9T fuselage was caused by the NS-37 cannon. To be honest the length of the cannon was the reason for moving of the cockpit back. The cockpit was moved back of 40cm and still the cannon barrel was protruding 16cm from the spinner.
 
... But these planes really looked almost the same.

Sorry, is there any production log which reports Yak-9D built with -9T (or M) fuselage? Or you wanted to say: "... these planes would have looked almost the same". You also wrote: "the fuselage of the Yak-9D/M and the Yak-9T was the same", but I read this latter had its fuselage longer by 10 cm (pls see attachment, from "Profile" No.185). Excuse me, but language barrier easily may cause misunderstanding. I'm confused.
 

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I see. But the answer to your question is clearly seen in the pic you posted above.

yak9-yakovlev-185.jpg


All my reffernces ( different books ) say the length of the Yak-9D and the Yak-9M was of 8,50m( 8,55m). While the Yak-9T was of 8,66m length. But the difference wasn't caused by making the fuselage of the T variant longer. The fuselage was of the same length. The discrepancy was made by the protruding NS-37 cannon barrel. Just of the 16cm. If the fuselage would be made 10cm longer there it would be stated in all books especially russian references. But I haven't seen a such report so far. Simple, the data for the Yak length is the total dimension.
The M version was a kind of an universal mount and in fact was a mix of the D and T types. I mean the fuselage was taken from the T type and wings from the D one. Because of that the M variant was possible to be armed either with the 20mm cannon or the 37mm one. In other words if you see in a picture a Yak-9 with moved cockpit back but without protruding barrel it's the M variant armed with the 20mm cannon. No moved cockpit back and no protruding barrel , it's the Yak-9D. And in the same way... protruding barrel and the cockpit moved back it's the T version. The number of 4239 built Yak-9Ms causes it was the most numerous assembled Yak variant. I hope I explained it properly.

dane.jpg


and another one...

dane2.jpg


Oh.. BTW... I'm not sure why you consider the Yak-9M being the hypothetical plane.
 
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In other words if you see in a picture a Yak-9 with moved cockpit back but without protruding barrel it's the M variant armed with the 20mm cannon. No moved cockpit back and no protruding barrel , it's the Yak-9D. And in the same way... protruding barrel and the cockpit moved back it's the T version.

Thank you so much! Very clear!:)

I'm not sure why you consider the Yak-9M being the hypothetical plane.

This is the misunderstanding: I do not consider Yak-9M hypothetical - for sure it was real - but a Yak-9D, built in 1944, with cockpit moved aft by 40 cm. At this point, differences should have been the "numerous fixes and improvements based on experience with previous versions" (quoting Wikipedia about Yak-9M), but this is much of a piddling question.

Sorry for the slight mismatch and thank you again!

Cheers,
GB
 
OK. No problemo. Just thought about that looking at your post #3.

To sum up ... The first was the Yak-9 then the Yak-9T and then the Yak-9D. Then appeared the Yak-9M that was the standardisation of the T and D variant in 1944. The letters, I mean the T,D,M, say us what a kind of a purpose the Yak-9 was designed for. The "D" - Dahlniy - long-range. The "T" - Tahnkovyy - tank-busting. The "M" means Modernizeerovannyy - updated. This modification was effected directly at Plant No. 153 which was producing the Yak-9D and Yak-9T. The designation Yak-9M was allocated to all Yak-9 aircraft from the 24th/25th batch onwards.
 
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