Yak-1B

Yak-1B

Yak-1

Yak-7B

Yak-1B

Yak-1

Yak-7B

USSR

II Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
3.3	3.0	3.3

Class:

Fighter

Research:4 600

Purchase:16 000

Show in game

This page is about the Soviet fighter Yak-1B. For other uses, see Yak-1 (Family).

Description

The Yak-1B is a Rank II Soviet fighter with a battle rating of 3.3 (AB/SB) and 3.0 (RB). This aircraft has been in the game since the start of the Open Beta Test before Update 1.29.

The standard armament for most Yakovlev aircraft: One machine gun and one ShVak cannon; with 200 and 120 rounds each, nothing out of the ordinary. Good against aircraft, but against anything more significant the burst-mass is lacking for quick take-downs.

The improved Yak-1 features, like most mid war water-cooled fighters, a 1140 hp engine. It remains sub par to the German equivalent. However, at the time this plane was fielded most enemy vehicles were of heavier weight, further increasing the Yak series excellent maneuverability. Unfortunately, in-game the aircraft is tiered with earlier vehicles, this shifts the performance spectrum of the Yak-1B towards engine power.

General info

Flight Performance

Characteristics
Stock
Max Speed (km/h at 4,000 m)		Max altitude (meters)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (meters/second)		Take-off run (meters)
AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
575	559	10,500	19.3	19.8	13.6	13.4	368
Upgraded
Max Speed (km/h at 4,000 m)		Max altitude (meters)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (meters/second)		Take-off run (meters)
AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
608	592	10,500	18.0	18.5	18.6	16.0	368

Details

Features
Combat flap	Take-off flap	Landing flap	Air brakes	Arrestor gear
X	X	✓	X	X

Limits
Wing-break speed (km/h)	Gear limit (km/h)	Combat flap (km/h)	Max Static G
			+	-
683	320	410	~20	~14

Optimal velocities
Ailerons (km/h)	Rudder (km/h)	Elevators (km/h)	Radiator (km/h)
< 380	< 420	< 490	> 270

Compressor (RB/SB)
Setting 1
Optimal altitude	100% Engine power	WEP Engine power
700 m	1,260 hp	?,??? hp
Setting 2
Optimal altitude	100% Engine power	WEP Engine power
2,900 m	1,175 hp	?,??? hp

Survivability and armour

• 64 Bulletproof glass in cockpit front and rear.
• 8 mm Steel plate behind the pilot.
• Critical components located in front of the aircraft (fuel, pilot, engine, controls)
• More fuel tanks located in wings near the fuselage

Armaments

Offensive armament

The Yak-1B is armed with:

• 1 x 20 mm ShVAK cannon, nose-mounted (120 rpg)
• 1 x 12.7 mm Berezin UB machine gun, nose-mounted (200 rpg)

Suspended armament

The Yak-1B can outfit external armaments:

• Without load
• 2 x 50 kg FAB-50 bombs (100 kg total)

Usage in the battles

Information for Arcade Battles,

The Yak-1B is simply an upgraded Yak-1, the main features being much-improved cockpit visibility (useful if you like to fly "in-cockpit"), slightly better durability, and a slightly more resilient engine that, unfortunately, still overheats quickly. However, the beauty of the Yakovlev line of fighters lies in two things:

• Their biggest problem is engine overheating, but this is easily fixed by simply flying between 80%-90% throttle.
• The Yak's performance is not hindered in the slightest by flying at this engine power.

Due to the above two facts, in AB: fly at 90% power. The Yaks can dogfight just fine at 90%, and will rarely overheat. Even though in Arcade battles all planes get WEP, the WEP on this plane adds almost nothing to its performance while rapidly overheating the engine, thus using WEP is practically unnecessary. If you find yourself in a situation where your aircraft needs more power, throttle up from 90% to 100% power, however, remember to throttle back down to 90% once you can.

Wait for the dogfight to start, then fly in behind a distracted enemy. Shoot in bursts unless tailing a bomber, in which case you will not last very long against their rear gunners unless you are incredibly accurate with the cannon. If your engine begins to overheat, start flying back to your airfield. Otherwise, your engine will give out after the temperature gauge turns red.

To sum up, this is merely a better version of the Yak-1, with similar tactics and strategy. Just remember that Soviet fighter aircraft in general count heavily on it's pilot's accuracy having, in this case, only one good gun!

Information for Realistic Battles,

Take off at 100% throttle, then go to 90% after getting above the trees. Upon reaching around 500 m, go to 80-85% throttle. Stay low at all costs! If you climb above 1000 m, four things will happen:

1) You will have run your engine out trying to climb, so your engine has less time before it overheats than usual. (You also don't climb as fast as most other planes, in fact, there are better Soviet aircraft for climbing, such as the MiG-3 and the La-5).

2) You will be highly visible.

3) You will have reduced manoeuvrability.

4) You will easily rip your wings upon trying to dive (The Yak's wings, is made of wood, disappear at about 600 kph).

If you stay below 1000 m, then you will have more advantages than the enemy, such as:

1) Better camouflage... harder to spot.

2) There is almost no chance of ripping wings.

3) You are already at optimal altitude and speed for manoeuvring.

4) Enemies easily overshoot you or rip wings attempting to dive on you.

5) You can trick enemies into flying into the ground (make sure you don't do so yourself!).

Right before entering a dogfight, bring your throttle to 90%. Flying at this reduced throttle setting in Realistic Battles is enough to fight at below 1,000 m (some experienced Yak pilots will even dogfight at 80% throttle!). Immediately after battling it out, bring the throttle back down to 80% (if you don't already have it there). Only in extreme cases use 100% power; however, maintaining that speed tends to overheat the engine quickly.

It is recommended to avoid firing at ground targets due to the limited ammunition available for use against other planes. Remember that you do not reload in mid-air in Realistic Battle, so ammunition conservation is critical while closing the distance with the enemy before firing. Remember, fire only in short bursts to conserve ammunition and avoid jamming the guns. The great thing about the Yak's guns is that they are centre-line mounted. Guns mounted in the propeller shaft mean that you do not have to worry about convergence points, instead lead the target and snipe. The drawback is that you cannot spray the mark with a hail of bullets like most players tend to do. This plane and all the Yaks afterwards are about accuracy and skill necessary to handle this agile plane, and it's hard-hitting cannon (that all non-Soviet pilots complain about) to compensate for the lack of ammo. The machine gun is lacklustre and is only useful once your cannon ammunition has run out (you use the machine gun as protection on the way back to the airfield).

When landing, slow the aircraft to BELOW 300 km/h before lowering the landing gear! Many Yak pilots have ripped their fragile landing gear when descending too fast with them extended. The last thing all Yak pilots should know in Realistic Battles is never to climb higher than 3,000 m (at or below 1,000 m is preferred). The Yak line of fighters was not built to fight at the higher altitudes, and the game is filled with much more capable aircraft in this respect. If you like B&Z or you prefer to climb high, but don't want to use the US or German planes, then use the MiG line or the LaGG/La line of fighters, as they have much better engines. The Yak is a dog-fighter.

Tips from the Aces

• A Yak pilot can nullify all but the last "Cons" below by staying below 2000 m, and keeping the throttle at 90% for AB, and 85% for RB/SB.
• If the situation allows, using in-cockpit view can often help with accuracy due to no parallax effect... meaning (hopefully) less of your precious shots wasted.
• Flaps help with hard turns, but against most opponents, flaps will not be utilized much. Use flaps wisely, since flying at ~90% means a tiny bit less engine power to get back to speed after slowing down due to using flaps. However, don't hesitate to use flaps if the fight depends on it, it is easier to regain speed than to pay for a new plane!
• Everything learned from the Yak-1B applies to all of the later Yaks mastering this plane will repay itself in gold later.

Specific enemies worth noting

• A6M2 Zeroes: They will out turn you, so try to attack in a shallow dive rather than a turn fight. Energy fighting is also okay because Zero has poor energy retention and terrible high-speed control and handling.
• P-47Ds: They are much faster than you and are excellent at boom and zoom, so avoid them if possible. If you are caught in a fight, try to energy fight them or turn to fight them.
• Other Yakovlevs: They are slightly slower, so either keep them occupied with manoeuvres such as the scissors and barrel rolls or energy fight them.
• Spitfires: They are significantly slower but has a turn radius that could embarrass a Zero, and their Hispano cannons are significantly more deadly than you ShVAK cannon. Try to energy fight them as that can overcome your worse manoeuvrability. Boom & Zoom is also an option in arcade battles, but never try to turn-fight a Spitfire.

Manual Engine Control

MEC elements
Mixer	Pitch	Radiator			Supercharger	Turbocharger
		Oil	Water	Type
Controllable	Not controllable	Not controllable	Not controllable	Separate	Not ontrollable	Not controllable

Modules

Tier	Flight performance		Survivability	Weaponry
I	Fuselage Repair	Radiator		Offensive 12 mm
II		Compressor	Airframe	New 12 mm MGs	BI-42
III	Wings Repair	Engine	Offensive 20 mm
IV			Cover	New 20 mm Cannons

With the Yak line of fighters, Always research the engine and performance modules first! Adding power upgrades will help to lower the overheating of the engine. Afterwards, the aircraft modules can be unlocked in any order according to pilot preference. The Survivability modules are recommended next, as they improve the Yak-1b's manoeuvrability and survivability even more. The Armament modules improve only by adding ammo belt types available but also allows the usage of 100 kg of bombs.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Good speed
• Good structural strength
• Hard-hitting and accurate 20 mm ShVAK cannon
• Good rate of climb at low alt

Cons:

• No WEP in RB/SB
• Water and Oil overheats quickly
• Low dive speed limit
• Poor performance above 5,000 m altitude
• Low ammo count makes this plane reliant on accuracy

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the aircraft in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too big, take it to a separate article, taking a link to an article about the vehicle and adding a block "/ historical reference" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/Name-vehicles/historical reference) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to include links to sources at the end of the article.

Media

An excellent addition to the article will be video guides, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.

Read also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example,

• reference to the series of the aircraft;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

Sources

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• page on aircraft encyclopedia;
• other literature.
• [Wikipedia] Yakovlev Yak-1