Yakovlev Yak-11

The Yakovlev Yak-11, known to NATO as the "Moose," served as a trainer with the Soviet Air Force and air forces aligned with the USSR from 1947 through 1962. Development began in mid-1944 at the Yakovlev design bureau, which started work on an advanced trainer derived from the Yak-3 fighter, though the project was not a priority during World War II. A first prototype, called the Yak-UTI or Yak-3UTI, flew in late 1945. It used the radial-powered Yak-3U as its basis but swapped the ASh-82 engine for a seven-cylinder Shvetsov ASh-21 radial. The wings were all-metal, like those of the Yak-3U, while the fuselage mixed metal and wood. Pilot and observer sat in tandem beneath a long canopy with separate sliding hoods. Armament consisted of one synchronized 12.7 mm UBS machine gun and wing racks for two 100 kg bombs.

An improved prototype took flight in 1946, featuring redesigned cockpits and a modified engine installation with shock-absorbing mounts. This version passed state testing in October 1946, and production started at factories in Saratov and Leningrad in 1947. Production Yak-11s were heavier than the prototypes, and later batches received non-retractable tailwheels and revised propellers. Some aircraft carried a 7.62 mm ShKAS machine gun instead of the UBS, and others had rear-view periscopes above the windscreen. Soviet factories built 3,859 Yak-11s between 1947 and 1955, while Let in Czechoslovakia produced another 707 under license as the C-11.

In 1951, Yakovlev updated the design by adding retractable tricycle landing gear, proposing two variants: the Yak-11U basic trainer and the Yak-11T proficiency trainer, which carried equipment similar to that of contemporary jet fighters. These aircraft had less fuel capacity and could not operate well on rough or snow-covered runways, so the Soviet Union rejected them, though a few were built in Czechoslovakia as the C-11U.

The Yak-11 entered service in 1947 as a standard advanced trainer for the Soviet Air Forces and DOSAAF. Both the Yak-11 and C-11 served in all Warsaw Pact countries and were exported to eighteen nations, including many in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Egypt used the aircraft extensively during its intervention in the North Yemen civil war, modifying them with Sakr 78 mm unguided rockets and two .303 inch guns in the wings for ground attack.