Yak-9, grey-grey camouflage prototype

By Michal Sekula

Updated on May 13, 2020

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Black-green camouflage introduced in 1941 was good in flight from distance, when the bluish tint of the atmosphere covers its dark shades, but was too visible against the bluish horizon when the plane was close to the observer, when plane engaged into an air-to air combat. Another factor oinfluenced the choice of a new standard camouflage during the early spring of 1943 was the lack of raw materials utilized for AMT-4 and A-24m green paints.
In April 1943, a grey-grey Yak-9 was presented as a proposal for the new standard camouflage of fighters. More info about development of the camouflage of Soviet fighters in 1943 at https://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/colors/1943-45-fighters/1943-45.html.
More about Yak-9 family in English at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakovlev_Yak-9 and in Russian (with line drawings etc.) at http://www.airfield.narod.ru/yak/yak-9/yak-9.html and https://coollib.com/b/261705/read.
Yak-9 in prototype of grey-grey camouflage as presented by Yakovlev in April 1943:

 

Photo of the original:

 

The same plane at the NII-VVS show room in 1943. The contrast with the darker green painting of MiG-3, and with the green/black camo of Il-2 and Pe-2 is evident:


 

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