Yakovlev-7

Yak-7 emerged in 1941 as a result of conversion of the dual-control trainer aircraft Yak-7UTI into a combat fighter. This action was dictated by the shortage in 1941 of modern fighters for front line combat. Armament was installed: a 20 mm cannon, two 7.62 mm machine guns and 6 missiles RS-82 (a rack of 3 missiles on each side under the wing). Series pruduction began in September 1941.

In 1942 a variant of Yak-7 went into production that was armed with 12.7 mm instead of 7.62 mm machine guns. It was given the name Yak-7B.

Yak-7B

A small series of 22 planes was also build armed with 37 mm cannon. This variant was called Yak-7-37.

The standard Yak-7 was built using construction technology similar for Yak-1 (I-26) series with a timber/plywood wing. With increasing availability of light alloy materials in 1942, the wing construction was changed to use metal spars. This allowed more space for fuel tanks and resulted in development of a long-range fighter which was called Yak-7DI (range 1310 km). It also had lowered rear fuselage fairing and bubble-shaped canopy. Yak-7DI was actually a prototype for another family of Yakovlev fighters known as Yak-9.