"The best," "glorified," "legendary," "pride of the domestic aircraft industry" - all these enthusiastic epithets fully relate to the planes of the great aircraft designer Alexander Sergeevich Yakovlev. His Yak-1 was rightfully considered the best Soviet fighter of the initial period of the war. His Yak-7 first allowed Soviet pilots to fight German aces on equal terms. The "honored front-line soldier" Yak-9 became the most massive aircraft of the Second World War.