For the Soviet challenge! This replica was hard to find locations of things like the gun and landing gear. (Trying to stabilize it on the ground) I'm quite happy with the engine. It has one 20mm nose cone machine gun and a Kilmov VK-107A in line piston engine. History: Yakovlev's Yak-9 was a development of the line of Russian fighters that started with the inferior Yak-1 and evolved into the far better Yak-3 and Yak-9, the latter being the subject of this article. The Yak-9 was the mainstay of the Soviet Air Force in the middle and late years of World War II and was produced in greater numbers than any other Soviet fighter. By the middle of 1944 there were more Yak-9s in service than all other Soviet fighters combined. Like other Russian fighters, it was designed for mass production and durability. It offered little in new technology and, due to chronic Soviet shortages, incorporated a minimum of scarce strategic materials, especially in the earlier models. Soviet fighters of the era, including the Yak-9, were designed to achieve numerical rather than technical superiority.