The Yakovlev Yak-23 was an early Soviet jet fighter with a straight wing. It was developed from the Yak-17 in the late 1940s and used a reverse-engineered copy of a British engine. It was not built in large numbers as it was inferior in performance to the swept-wing Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15. Many Yak-23s were exported to the Warsaw Pact nations and remained in service for most of the 1950s, although some were still in use a decade later.
Yakovlev Yak-23
Yakovlev Yak-23UTI
Romanian Yak-23s at Ianca
Yak-23 in the Russian Central Air Force Museum, Monino Airfield
The Yakovlev Yak-17 was an early Soviet jet fighter. It was developed from the Yak-15, the primary difference being tricycle landing gear. The trainer version, known as the Yak-17UTI, was the only Soviet jet trainer of the 1940s. Both aircraft were exported in small numbers and the Yak-17 was soon replaced by the far superior Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 beginning in 1950.
Yakovlev Yak-17
Yak-17UTI in the Datangshan Aviation Museum, Beijing
Yak-17UTI in the Polish Aviation Museum
Yak-17 in Prague Aviation Museum, Kbely, Prague, Czech Republic