Challe's Yak-9T (France)

This page is about the French fighter Challe's Yak-9T (France). For other versions, see Yak-9 (Family).

Challe's ▄Yak-9T

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Challe's ▄Yak-9T

France

III Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
3.7	4.0	4.0

Class:

PREMIUM

Fighter

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Description

This Yak-9T White 60 was flown by French pilot René M. P. A. Challe, who served in the Normandie-Niemen squadron, a French fighter squadron that fought on the Eastern Front of World War II under Soviet command. During the Battle of France, Challe was part of the GC III/7 and was shot down in his M.S.406, which led to his hospitalization. After recovering, he escaped occupied France in 1943 with eight fellow aviators through Spain and volunteered to join the Normandie-Niemen regiment in Tula, USSR. He was assigned to his Yak-9T White 60, where he painted the emblem of his previous squadron and acquired eight confirmed aerial victories. On his last flight on January 17, 1945, he was gravely injured when Minengeschoß rounds exploded in his cockpit, severely injuring his left hand and arm. Despite his injuries, he survived the engagement, the war, and recovered from his wounds. He passed away on April 4, 2006.

It was introduced in Update 1.73 "Vive la France" and made available briefly for purchase in-game with Golden Eagles during the 2017 "75th anniversary of the Normandie-Niemen" event commemorating the Franco-Soviet squadron. The 37 mm NS-37 cannon of the Yak-9T was a fearsome weapon. However, due to its reload time and ammunition capacity, “spray and pray” firing tactics were not an option. As Challe demonstrated time and again, the best bet was to manoeuvre his fighter as close to the enemy as possible, sometimes within 100 metres, and then engage with the cannon. At this range, the cannon had a better chance of hitting its target, and as demonstrated by Challe, it could remove a wing or disable a pilot with ease. Challe would wait for the target aircraft to manoeuvre in a fashion that would expose enough surface area to reduce the chance of the 37 mm rounds bouncing or deflecting off of the target aircraft. Aside from following Challe’s tactics, the cannon can also be used for its intended role of tank busting, loading AP shells, and diving in on the roofs of tanks bursting through with the relatively high penetration of the cannon, making short work of tanks and excelling as a close air support aircraft.

General info

Flight performance

Max speed

at 4 000 m593 km/h

Turn time18 s

Max altitude10 000 m

EngineKlimov VK-105PF

TypeInline

Cooling systemWater

Take-off weight3 t

The Yak-9T has a very similar flight performance to other Yaks. It has very good low-speed handling and good turn as well as energy retention. The engine is not as powerful as that of the Bf-109 or the P-51, but it still features a good acceleration for its BR, and while the rate of climb is not the best, it keeps up with other fighters, it should be noted that the Yak-9s engine performs better at altitudes below 4000-3000 m.

Characteristics	Max Speed (km/h at 4,000 m)		Max altitude (metres)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (metres/second)		Take-off run (metres)
	AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
Stock	576	560	10000	18.8	19.5	13.7	13.6	366
Upgraded	610	593		17.2	18.0	18.5	16.0

Details

French ace René Challe (left) and Maurice Challe (right) standing in front of René's Yak-9T, White 60.

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

Limits
Wings (km/h)	Gear (km/h)	Flaps (km/h)			Max Static G
		Combat	Take-off	Landing	+	-
683	320	N/A	N/A	280	~12	~9

Optimal velocities (km/h)
Ailerons	Rudder	Elevators	Radiator
< 380	< 420	< 490	> 340

Survivability and armour

Crew1 person

Speed of destruction

Structural0 km/h

Gear320 km/h

• 64 mm Bulletproof glass in cockpit front and rear.
• 8 mm Steel plate in the pilot's seat.

Modifications and economy

Repair cost

AB792

RB2 300

SB1 875

Crew training10 000

Experts67 000

Aces400

Research Aces570 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

2 × 60 / 150 / 280 %

2 × 136 / 136 / 136 %

Modifications

Flight performance	Survivability	Weaponry
Fuselage repair Radiator Compressor Wings repair Engine	Airframe Cover	ub_belt_pack ub_new_gun ns37_belt_pack ns37_new_gun

Armaments

Offensive armament

Weapon 137 mm NS-37 cannon

Ammunition30 rounds

Fire rate260 shots/min

Weapon 212.7 mm Berezin UBS machine gun

Ammunition200 rounds

Fire rate996 shots/min

Challe's Yak-9T (France) is armed with:

• 1 x 37 mm NS-37 cannon, nose-mounted (30 rpg)
• 1 x 12.7 mm Berezin UB machine gun, nose-mounted (200 rpg)

Usage in battles

The Yakovlev 9-T or Yak-9T, is the most popular of the Yak-9 series and is best played differently depending on the situation the pilot finds themselves in.

To begin, make sure that you take off and immediately climb. A twenty-degree angle may be too much to handle depending on the number of upgrades purchased on the aircraft, so initially, a 15° climb will suffice. With it, the pilot keeps much-needed speed and agility. Altitude advantage over your opponent is always preferred, and most pilots of the tier that the Yak-9T fights, do not choose to climb over 2,000 metres (6,561 feet) A good altitude to climb to is 3,000 metres (9,842 feet) to gain the altitude advantage over the enemy. Be advised this will not always be the case and some enemies will climb above you, if this happens, try to make them bleed energy until they are slower than you and turn-fight them.

At high altitudes, the Yak 9T is best suited to energy fighting, which means using the Yak's good energy retention to zoom at an opponent, shoot at them, and then climb up and turn back to your opponent and give chase. The Yak at mid to low altitude is best suited to turn-fighting against all nations except for the Japanese. If facing the Japanese, use the same energy fight tactics as stated above, as Japanese planes will be unable to give chase due to the low energy retention of their lightweight aircraft. The Yak-9T comes equipped with flaps, it is critical you use them, as performance is significantly increased in a turn-fight with them opened.

The Yak-9T and typically speaking, all Yak aircraft suffer from constant engine overheat which requires properly watching the temperature to ensure it does not stay critical for too long or the engine will die and the plane becomes subject to the laws of gravity. Keep eyes on the temperature at all times. The best advice is to keep the throttle at 90% or lower when not in combat. The Yak-9T is best suited for flying in colder maps, however, if on a hot map, gain altitude and cruise at 85-90% throttle.

Manual Engine Control

MEC elements
Mixer	Pitch	Radiator			Supercharger	Turbocharger
		Oil	Water	Type
Controllable	Controllable Not auto controlled	Controllable Not auto controlled	Controllable Not auto controlled	Separate	Controllable 2 gears	Not controllable

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Cannon is quite accurate and powerful
• Has 30 shells for the 37 mm and a reasonably high rate of fire compared to its calibre
• Decent manoeuvrability
• Cannon can knock out medium tanks with several hits in the side or rear

Cons:

• The 37 mm chews through ammunition quickly; afterwards, you only have a single 50. Cal machine gun (unless you wait for reload in arcade or return to base in realistic or simulator battles)
• 37 mm has high recoil
• Lousy high-altitude performance

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 long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Notable pilots

French ace pilot René Challe flying for USSR against Germany.

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the Challe's Yak-9T (France) from live.warthunder.com.

See 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.

External links

• Official data sheet - more details about the performance

A.S. Yakovlev Design Bureau (Яковлев Опытное конструкторское бюро)
Fighters
Yak-1	Yak-1 · Yak-1B
Yak-3	Yak-3 · Eremin's Yak-3(e) · Yak-3 (VK-107) · Yak-3P · Yak-3T · Yak-3U
Yak-7	Yak-7B
Yak-9	Yak-9 · Yak-9B · Yak-9K · Golovachev's Yak-9M · Yak-9P · Yak-9T · Yak-9U · Yak-9UT
Twin-engine fighters	I-29
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Foreign use	▄Yak-3 · Challe's ▄Yak-9T · ◔Yak-9P
Captured	▀Yak-1B