Soviet WW2 Planes: The 7 Best Fighters, Ranked, Plus the Il-2 and the Bombers

The best Soviet fighter plane of World War 2 was the Yakovlev Yak-3. It was one of the smallest and lightest fighters any side flew, it reached 401 mph (646 km/h), and the Luftwaffe reportedly told its pilots not to dogfight it below 16,400 feet (5,000 m).

The Lavochkin La-7 runs it closest, and the Yak-9 was built in the largest numbers. This list ranks seven Soviet fighters by how well each one fought the German fighters it met, weighted by how many were built and when they reached the front. For how they stack up against every air force, see our ranking of the best fighter planes of WW2.

Fighters alone did not win the air war in the east, so the Il-2 Shturmovik, the Pe-2 and the Tu-2 get their own section below, along with the American P-39 that Soviet aces made famous.

1. Yakovlev Yak-3

The Yak-3 was Yakovlev’s answer to the Battle of Stalingrad, where German fighters had shown clear advantages over the Yak-1 in speed, climb and firepower. It entered service in 1944, later than the Yak-9 despite its lower number, and 4,848 had been built by mid-1946.

Its secret was weight. Empty, it weighed just 4,641 pounds (2,105 kg), and its 1,290 hp Klimov VK-105PF2 pushed it to 401 mph (646 km/h) at 13,500 feet (4,100 m). It carried one 20 mm ShVAK cannon and two 12.7 mm Berezin machine guns.

That power-to-weight ratio made it a formidable dogfighter against the best German fighters of WW2. It edges the La-7 for the top spot because it was the sharper turning fighter, and because the Luftwaffe itself treated it as the one to avoid.

Foreign pilots rated it just as highly. The Free French Normandie-Niemen regiment switched to the Yak-3 in 1944 and scored the last 99 of its 273 air victories in it, and the regiment’s French pilots preferred it even to the British and American fighters on offer.

After the war the Soviet Union gave 37 Yak-3s to France, and the regiment’s last one is now at the Musée de l’Air at Le Bourget. Yak-3s still fly today, built new with American Allison V-1710 or Pratt & Whitney R-1830 engines in place of the wartime Klimov. Our Yak-3 aircraft page has the full specifications.

2. Lavochkin La-7

The La-7 was the La-5FN refined. Engineers at the TsAGI aerodynamics institute cleaned up the airframe, and Lavochkin added lighter but stronger metal wing spars. It first flew in early 1944 and began combat trials in mid-September 1944.

It was faster than the Yak-3 and hit harder. The 1,850 hp Shvetsov ASh-82FN radial gave it 411 mph (661 km/h) at 19,685 feet (6,000 m), and it carried two 20 mm ShVAK cannons or three 20 mm Berezin B-20s, all in the engine cowling. Lavochkin built 5,753, plus 584 two-seat La-7UTI trainers.

It was also the fighter of Ivan Kozhedub, credited with more than 60 solo victories and considered the highest-scoring Allied fighter pilot of the war, and one of the names in our ranking of the best fighter pilots in history. In mid-February 1945 he shot down a Messerschmitt Me 262 jet in his La-7, the first Soviet pilot to do so.

Kozhedub’s own La-7, number 27, is preserved at the Central Air Force Museum at Monino outside Moscow. The La-7 ranks second, not first, because it reached the front a few months after the Yak-3 and the lighter Yak was the better dogfighter. On speed at altitude and firepower, it beat the Yak-3 outright.

3. Yakovlev Yak-9

The Yak-9 was the workhorse. The first ones entered service in October 1942, and in summer 1943 the type helped take air superiority back from the Fw 190 and Bf 109 at the Battle of Kursk. Between 1942 and 1948, 16,769 were built, 14,579 of them during the war.

That made it the most produced Soviet fighter of the war. Yakovlev’s fighters together reached about 37,000, which would make the Yak family the most produced fighter in history if it were counted as one type.

Its strength was flexibility, with 15 versions put into production during the war. The Yak-9T carried a 37 mm cannon, the Yak-9K a 45 mm gun for tank-busting, and the long-range Yak-9DD could fly 1,420 miles (2,285 km) to escort Pe-2 and Tu-2 bombers.

The late Yak-9U, with the 1,650 hp Klimov VK-107A, reached 429 mph (690 km/h) at 19,400 feet (5,900 m), the highest figure on this list. For how that compares, see our ranking of the fastest planes of WW2. Our Yak-9 aircraft page covers the full specifications.

The enemy noticed. German ace Gerhard Barkhorn said: “I fought against all types of Soviet fighters, including those supplied under Lend-Lease, and the Yak-9 was the best.” It ranks third only because the Yak-3 and La-7 that followed it were better still.

4. Lavochkin La-5

The La-5 saved Lavochkin’s design bureau. By early 1942 the LaGG-3’s shortcomings had cost Lavochkin Stalin’s favor, and LaGG-3 factories were switching over to Yak production.

The fix was an engine swap. In early 1942 a LaGG-3 was fitted with the Shvetsov ASh-82 radial in place of its inline engine, and by July 1942 the result was in full production, including conversions of unfinished LaGG-3 airframes.

The definitive La-5FN, with a boosted 1,960 hp M-82FN, reached 403 mph (648 km/h) at 20,510 feet (6,250 m) and carried two 20 mm ShVAK cannons. Ivan Kozhedub mastered it in 1943 and became an ace on it before moving to the La-7.

All versions together came to 9,920 aircraft, and they did much of the hardest fighting. The Soviet air force lost 2,591 La-5s in the war, 1,460 of them in 1943 alone.

5. Yakovlev Yak-1

Every Yak on this list started here. The I-26 prototype first flew on 13 January 1940, and the Yak-1 went into production the same year, with wooden wings on a composite structure. Around 8,700 were built before production ended in July 1944.

The Yak-1b reached 368 mph (592 km/h) at 16,100 feet (4,900 m) and carried one 20 mm cannon and one 12.7 mm machine gun. It was built to escort Il-2 attack aircraft, so its fights took place below 13,000 feet (4,000 m), the altitude band where it performed best.

It also carried the war’s most famous women fighter pilots. Twenty-four Yak-1s went to the all-female 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment, whose pilots included Katya Budanova and Lydia Litvyak, the only women credited as fighter aces.

Litvyak flew her Yak-1, Yellow 44, until she was killed in combat on 1 August 1943. The Yak-1 ranks fifth because it was outclassed by the newest German fighters by the end of 1942, but it carried the Soviet fighter force through its hardest year.

6. Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

The MiG-3 was built for a different war than the one it got. It was a high-altitude interceptor, and at 23,600 feet (7,200 m) its 398 mph (640 km/h) beat the 382 mph (615 km/h) of the Bf 109 F-2 and the 375 mph (603 km/h) of the Spitfire V.

Down low, the advantage disappeared. At sea level it managed 314 mph (505 km/h) against the Bf 109 F-2’s 320 mph (515 km/h), and a shortage of ground-attack aircraft in 1941 even forced it into a strike role it was totally unsuited for.

The Il-2 ended its career. Stalin demanded more Il-2s, and because the MiG-3’s Mikulin AM-35A engine was closely related to the Il-2’s AM-38, engine production could switch quickly. The last 30 MiG-3s were assembled from spares in 1942, for a total of 3,422.

Alexander Pokryshkin, later one of the top Soviet aces, flew it in 1941. The design bureau behind it went on to build many of the jets on our list of the best Russian fighter jets, and our MiG-3 aircraft page has its specifications.

7. Polikarpov I-16

The I-16 was obsolete by 1941, and it still belongs here. When it first flew on 30 December 1933, with test pilot Valery Chkalov at the controls, it was the first low-wing cantilever monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear to reach squadron service.

The landing gear was cranked up by hand, and the stubby fighter picked up nicknames on two fronts. Soviet pilots called it Ishak, the donkey. In Spain the Nationalists called it Rata, the rat, while the Republicans who flew it called it Mosca, the fly.

It fought in Spain, China, at Khalkhin Gol and in the Winter War before Germany invaded. By then it was badly outclassed: of the 1,635 Polikarpov monoplanes in service on 21 June 1941, only 937 were left after 48 hours of combat.

Its value was numbers at the worst possible moment. A total of 10,292 single-seaters were built between 1935 and 1942, and the Type 24 managed 304 mph (489 km/h) at 9,800 feet (3,000 m), enough to keep fighting while the Yaks and Lavochkins came off the lines.

What about the LaGG-3?

The LaGG-3 was built in big numbers, 6,528 in all, and it is left off this list on purpose. Its laminated wooden panels tended to shatter when hit by explosive rounds, and its own pilots nicknamed it the “guaranteed varnished coffin.”

It matters for one reason: its airframe, fitted with a radial engine, became the La-5. Without the LaGG-3, the Lavochkin fighters at numbers 2 and 4 would not exist.

The American fighter Soviet aces made famous: Bell P-39 Airacobra

Not every great Soviet fighter was Soviet-built. Bell built 9,558 P-39 Airacobras, and nearly half went to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease, between 4,719 and 4,773 depending on the count, mostly N and Q models flown in over the Alaska-Siberia ferry route.

That was more than a third of all the American and British fighters in Soviet service. The first Soviet Airacobras carried a 20 mm cannon and two heavy machine guns in the nose.

Alexander Pokryshkin, one of the highest-scoring Soviet aces, scored the great majority of his victories in the P-39. That makes him the highest-scoring pilot ever to fly an American aircraft, a twist on the American fighter planes of WW2 story. Our P-39 Airacobra page has the specifications.

The Soviet bombers and attack planes that mattered just as much

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum points to the Soviet wartime emphasis on ground-attack aircraft. These three did much of that work, and several of the fighters above spent their war escorting them.

Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik

The Il-2 was the symbol of Soviet airpower in the war. It was an armored low-level attack aircraft whose steel shell, up to 12 mm thick around the engine and cockpit, was part of the load-bearing structure of the forward fuselage. It was often called the Flying Tank.

When factories fell behind on deliveries, Stalin told them the Red Army needed the Il-2 “like air, like bread.” More than 36,000 were built during the war, more than any other aircraft of any wartime nation, and it leads our list of the most produced aircraft of WW2.

Speed was never the point. The Il-2M3 topped out at 255 mph (410 km/h) at 4,900 feet (1,500 m).

Petlyakov Pe-2 and Pe-3

The Pe-2 was the Soviet workhorse among twin-engine bombers. Around 11,400 were built, more than any twin-engine combat aircraft of the war except the German Ju 88 and the British Wellington, and early versions reached 336 mph (540 km/h) at 16,400 feet (5,000 m).

Its heavy-fighter offshoot, the Pe-3, went into production in August 1941. Only 359 were built, 207 Pe-3s and 152 improved Pe-3bis, before production was canceled in favor of Il-4 bombers.

Tupolev Tu-2

The Tu-2 had an unlikely start. Andrei Tupolev was arrested in 1937 on trumped-up charges, and the state, still needing him, put him in charge of a team designing military aircraft.

The prototype first flew on 29 January 1941, and the first aircraft reached combat units in March 1942. An engine change slowed things down, but the bomber stayed in production until 1952, with more than 2,200 built, and the ASh-82 version reached 328 mph (528 km/h).