Exciting news for Warbirds fans with confirmation the world's only airworthy Yak-7B fighter is on target to display at next Easter's Warbirds Over Wanaka International airshow (April 3, 4, 5 - 2026).

The aircraft was brought to New Zealand by Mike O'Rourke back in 2019.  It has since been pulled apart and rebuilt with many improvements by Jay McIntyre and his team at JEM Aviation in Blenheim.

Progress on the restoration job has been picking up pace lately and the plan is the aircraft will be flying later this year well in time for the aircraft to make its major New Zealand airshow debut at Wanaka next Easter.

To learn more about the Yak-7B read on.

 

YAKOVLEV YAK-7B – By Graham Orphan, Feb 2025

 

The Soviet Union's Yakovlev series of lightweight V-12 fighters immediately impressed pilots, commanders and senior members of foreign air arms all at once when the first Yak-1 was flown early in 1940.  A succession of model variants followed, the wooden wing of the Yak-1 being replaced by an all-metal mainplane on the subsequent models in the series which included the essentially similarly configured Yak-3; Yak-7 and Yak-9, the latter seeing combat as late as the Korean war. Following the end of WW-II, the Yak-11 emerged as a two-seat dual-control trainer with a less powerful radial engine. At the other end of the scale, the Yak-15 and -17 appeared as early generation jet fighters built around the same basic WW-II airframe. 

 

After several years in which none of these aircraft could be seen flying anywhere in the world, a growing interest among western warbird enthusiasts saw a batch of some 41 retired, in fact largely derelict, Yak-11s recovered from a site in Egypt and circulated around the world, some restored to stock condition, others reverting to various iterations of the WW-II fighter models, mostly representing the Yak-3.  Such was the interest that the original production line restarted in 1990 to produce a limited production run of these fighters using the American Allison V-12 engine as an ideal replacement for the original and now rare Klimov engine. This activity ended in 2003 after around three dozen of the similar Yak-3 and Yak-9 aircraft had been completed.These newer aircraft joined a couple of dozen of the Yak-11 variants of which, as alluded to, a number were converted to represent the now familiar Yak-3. 

 

One owner in the USA however, decided to break from the norm and reconfigure his ex-Egyptian Yak-11 as a Yak-7. The aircraft that resulted is unique in the Yak fighter world since it embodies the distinctive high-back fuselage. Many fighter type aircraft from WW-II like the Spitfire, Mustang and Thunderbolt, started production early in the war with a high 'rear decking', only to have this arrangement changed to provide a lowered fuselage top and a 'bubble canopy' for improved rearward visibility. Aesthetically however, most enthusiasts prefer the earlier high back versions of each series as better looking aircraft and many would agree that the Yak-7 enjoys that same trait. 

 

The now New Zealand-based Yak-7 was masterminded by Bob Day of Michigan who set about ensuring that the less common but very attractive Yak-7 series would have a chance of coming back into the world skies. Commencing work in 1989 the aircraft was eventually sold in 2001 after which it changed hands and colour schemes several times before being acquired by Mike O'Rourke in Tauranga, New Zealand. On arrival it went into the hangars of Yak fighter experts JEM Aviation, led by Jay McIntyre. Many improvements and upgrades have been made since work commenced, ensuring that the world's sole airworthy representative of the Yak-7 series had moved from being an average warbird to an outstanding one. The striking colour scheme, researched and applied by JEM's Marty Nicoll represents the scheme worn by aircraft of the Normandie Nieman free-French fighter squadron which reputedly had been offered the choice of any allied fighter types and by-passed the Spitfires and Mustangs to opt for the Yaks, in which they acquitted themselves well. An influence over the colour scheme selection for Mike O'Rourke is that his wife Chantal, is French. 

 

So when you see this quite markedly different looking Yak participating in the Wanaka airshow next year, you will know that you are privileged to be seeing the only airworthy example of this model of the successful Yak fighter series, flying anywhere in the world today!

 

Photo: The cockpit of the Yak-7B taking shape