Product Details

The Yakovlev Yak-3 was a World War II Soviet fighter aircraft introduced in 1944. It was one of the smallest and lightest major combat fighters of the conflict but was robust, easy to maintain and much loved by pilots and ground crew alike. The Yak-3 was developed from the original Yak-1 but refinements led to its success against enemy aircraft, particularly when used on the Russian front against the Luftwaffe from 1944 onwards, as part of the Normandie-Niemen group.

Our Yak-3 is as piloted by Roger Sauvage, born of a white French mother and black father from Martinique, who was killed in battle in WWI. Roger Sauvage served very successfully with the French Air Force - L'Armée de l'Air but when the Armistice was signed, he left for North Africa where he stayed until the formation of the Normandie Regiment, the Free French Normandie-Niemen unit of French flyers who were deployed to fight the Germans on the Russian front in 1944. Casualties were initially very high but finally the regiment was given the superior Yak-3s and their success increased substantially. Roger Sauvage survived the war and stayed in the French Air Force. He retired in 1968 to Nice, where he died in 1977, aged just 60.

Our replica of Roger Sauvage's aircraft with its Soviet markings is painted in a sea grey and green camouflage scheme with pale blue underside. The markings along the fuselage, underwings and tail rudder are printed in red and white. The detailed propeller spinner is red, white and dark blue with black propeller blades. Gun barrels are also black, whilst a finishing touch sees the exhaust pipes in rusty brown.