When a Perfect Gun Turned a Good Fighter Useless | The Yak-9T and NS-37 story 

I feel like there's about a 90% chance that Glukharev was informing on his bosses. Being accused of espionage and just being transferred especially, since that comes off as a 'well yes he's spying but it's on behalf of us, so he's not in trouble, he's just going to look at another guy'

That NS-37 is like one of those Cards Against Humanity moments "Either the card is so bad there is no point in using it or so good that you CAN'T use it"

When I was a teenager I was very interested in the history of the Russian/Soviet aviation and space program, but as it was the 1980's information was damn hard to come by and what information I could get was unreliable. I love your channel and the 15 year old me from the past is very much enjoying it.

The Yak-9T ended up being very effective against light ships in the black sea though. At shorter ranges it was also incredibly effective against bombers, though the Germans just didn't have many of those. If they had access to better gunsights it would have been a lot more effective in general but that was not the case until after the war, which is part of why the Mig-15 had more success despite using a worse version of the gun (though with a higher fire rate). It's everyone's favorite meme-plane in warthunder, so at least it has that

Just wait till the Yak-9K with the 45 mm guns comes, shoots one time, stops mid air and crashes into the ground 😂

My most obvious take away from this yet again excellent film is, that in the west you were fired when unsuccessful at your job, while in the east you were fired upon for the same reason.

I loved the Tarantino-like introductions for Glukhaev and Yakovlev. That was just brilliant!

I hope you and all you family stay safe in these terrible times , & I'm glad your mother is well out of the Russian invasion . And thank you for coming back with another well researched video despite having lots of other calls on you time . I'd fire up the old line about .."it would not be " but that seems inappropriate in the current climate. Stay safe .

So glad that you uploaded a video😁 I don't know where you are, but hopefully you are not affected too much by the current war

Great episode, I really enjoyed the format and historical background information. It's good you make these quality videos for the world.

I applaud your skill at providing just the right amount of background information and context to make understanding the relationship Yak-9T and the NS-37 concise and comprehensible in such a relatively short video. Thank you very much for your efforts.

The Yak-9T actually has a very big and noticeable difference to previous Yak-9 models: the cooler intake under the engine. It is specifically this modification, which German Airforce instructed pilots to look out for, and if noted, preferably not engage (!), as the engagement would be too dangerous. Strange that it was missed in the video, although it was a German source where I got that from (am a German, was studying history)

5:04 please tell me that is a real photo. It is just so comically oversized that it looks fake. Very well done as usual. You can really tell the amount of effort you put into these videos.

It's really cool that the stock footage used actually has something to do with what he's talking about at the time rather than just random stuff just thrown in there like other RU-vid channels do

Came for the airplane history, stayed for the stories of Soviet wackiness and insanity

In the game "Secret Weapons Over Normandy" you could install a 57mm cannon pod to almost any plane once you unlocked it. You could drop tanks, destroyers, and even carriers down with it. Strapping that gun to the belly of a F4F Wildcat is as ridiculous as you might think, but oh so effective in game.

19:44; what an amazing piece of film. The Yaks in the foreground with an American B-17 in the background. Finding both at the same airfield, on purpose, is pretty amazing.

even though its a classic example of an engineers dream and an end users nightmare, i love bonking german planes with high explosive rounds of the yak 9t in il2. i hope they model the flaws more accurately (especially the tailspin one)

Finally new content. I love your style.

Top notch editing on this one. :D

the use of archive footage in this video is truly phenomenal.

First video I've seen talking more specifically about older Soviet warbirds. Fascinating stuff! Great scriptwriting and delivery man, keep it up.

Love your content and presentation. This is the first time I've sign up to a service like Curiosity and I'm looking forward to your content on Nebula. Thanks for your effort.

Ah yes...nothing like an arrest and execution on flimsy charges to end a weapons or technology project in the USSR. Also love that you always tell these stories from a far closer perspective than many people could having family born in the former USSR and your father having been a pilot! That´s why you focus on people and topics other channels rarely do. Hope you and your family can stay safe in this insane times!

It's a miracle they ever managed to design a can opener under these conditions.

There was another attempt to mount a 37mm cannon on a fighter prior to Yak-9T. LaGG-3 had it in 1941-2. Not because it was needed but because Shpitalny wanted to see one more of his guns adopted and heavily lobbied that. It had same problems: low probability to hit a tank, insufficient penetration/damage, lack of armor on a plane that is supposed to dive through AA and the heavy cannon made LaGG-3 even worse dogfighter (it already wasn't stellar). On the other hand, the cannon showed itself very well against bombers because it had longer range than machineguns (thus allowing to fire from beyond tail gunner's range) and even one hit desintegrated the plane. During combat trials LaGG-3 with 37mm cannon shot down 13 and damged 4 more planes in 4 combat encounters.

Hello Paper Skies, I just wanted to say that nobody on RU-vid does exactly what you do, as well as you do. I hope that you and your family are safe during these dangerous times. And when you are able, we are all eagerly awaiting another excellently researched and interesting video from you-- but no pressure, you obviously have to take care of the things that matter most first.

Welcome to 2022 Paper Skies Guy, here's to another year of fantastic videos.

It's nice to see a new video from you, although these are very difficult times for you and your family. Thank you. I sincerely hope your family is safe and secure and notably that your father is safe as well. i salute his courage.

Hey bud, where you been? Hope you're doing OK. Weird to see such a talented artist like yourself just disappear, how it doesn't have to do with the war. Anyway just wishing you the best if you see this!

The murder and repression of Tukachevsky's family (shown on a table at 8:10') is simply staggering.

I used to love flying the Yak 9T in Aces High 2. Great competitive online game. Anyway I digress... it was like throwing softballs at the enemy, the trajectory was insane and lining up didnt always work with the low round count you had, but when you got used to the gun it was amazing. Single round impact fighter destruction, two to three well aimed shots on a bomber wing and it was out. Huge fun, especially if vox was open and you got to hear someone berate you as they went down haha.

"...my streaming service,Nebula" No,comrade. Our.

Hey, just so you know, you make really good videos, and I'm here as a random. I just notice, in the few videos I've watched, besides the obviously extensive information you research to write these, the pacing and format of the videos is very good. For example, you introduce the next main sub-topic of the story (in this case the plane's unique gun system), then we go back like, multiple decades sometimes, and it's immediately clear why we are where/when we are in relation to where we just came from. You just set that up well, and then in seeming to tangent, continue to lead us through a the story while also providing so much context for that sub-topic we're heading back towards. It's just subtle but very impressive, and I wanted to point it out for everyone. P.S. Oh, and you have a great voice and accent for narration :P It's nice to listen to.

Your storytelling is excellent, followed by the great editing. Nice job, bingeable channel!

Allow my American self to say, that at 3:55, that flying Soviet star is a beautiful work of formation flying. Kudos to the Soviet air force.

so incredibly fun in war thunder tho. for some spaghetti code reason the first shot is always 100% exactly where your pipper is, and then after that it starts deflecting. so its super satisfying going headon with a p47 doing one click and watching the trajectory of the round land right on the upper part of the engine and knocking it out instantly.

Love this format! Healthy mix of comedy and information :) Keep it up!

Thank you for your documentaries, and all the best to you and your family!

I'm sure you're aware but thought I'd point out for prosperity the Yak-9 was derived from the Yak-UTI and has a tandem two seat planform. The cockpit wasn't moved back, they used the rear placement for it, where normally on the Yak-9 variants the front placement is used for the cockpit. The reason for the Yak-9 was simply to make use of tooling and production which had been improvised on a large scale to convert Yak-UTI trainers into the Yak-7 combat variant of the trainer. The Yak-9 was basically this aircraft redeveloped as a purpose built fighter upon the same planform, mainly the panelling is different although some late Yak-7 are in every respect identical to an early Yak-9 except for the cowling machine gun, a lighter ShKAS instead of a heavy Beresin, showing it is a converted trainer. You couldn't visually tell them apart at that stage, it was actually the Yak-7 which introduced the bubble canopy and cut down rear fuselage, but earlier production is just a blanked over second crew position and is obviously a converted two seater. It was an emergency measure to convert the Yak-UTI into the Yak-7 and then ramp production of it alongside the Yak-1 and as far as I know one of the factors which led to this was being a little more stable and easier to fly, the Yak-1 was extremely nimble but noted for its ability to become a handful for a novice pilot, by contrast the Yak-7 was noted for being very easy to fly for novices and a stable gun platform, a bit like the British Hurricane's reputation in the RAF as compared to the Spitfire, different but still very good. Simply, the Yak-1 was the thoroughbred and the Yak-7 the converted trainer with a blanked out rear position. Production of the Yak-7 was ramped so that thousands as a fighter, instead of dozens as a trainer were built and could be instantly produced. The Yak-9 is basically a refinement built as a fighter from scratch, but is the same aircraft built on the same planform with the same tooling. The stroke of genius about the Yak-9 was Yakovlev realising its heritage provided an opportunity to create the first multirole fighter type, in a sense. The airframe would not be imbalanced by use of the original rear crew position for heavy internal equipment like extra fuel tanks or bombs, such as in the Yak-9B and Yak-9D. Alternatively the cockpit could be moved to the rear position and give room for extra armament or larger armament in the front, again without impacting the flight characteristics in any significant way which is something you certainly couldn't do with a Yak-1. You could fit a Nudelman into a Yak-1, you could move the cockpit back a bit to accommodate it, but you would run into CoG issues you don't get with the Yak-9 and it would probably be unflyable. You could also put an extra auxiliary fuel tank in the rear fuselage of a Yak-1 just like a Mustang and vastly increase its range but would run into the same trouble as the Mustang with flight instability and manoeuvring restrictions until the tank is used up, again you don't have this problem at all with the Yak-9 as it was designed originally for a second crew position. You can have bombs behind the cockpit in a bay, extra fuel, or move the cockpit back and put a giant cannon in the front and they didn't give it any handling problems. And you could do it all on the same production line with the same aircraft and never delay a constant supply of deliveries to the field. They're all simple modifications upon the same planform. With all that in mind, at that point Stalin probably would've given Yakovlev a headjob. Favouritism is an odd word however, being favoured by a dictator is like being licked by a tiger.

You can't beat the quality of these

Excellent video as always!

Amazing quality video. Gonna be watching regularly now for sure!

I just recently found your channel and I gotta say your videos are really well made and captivating. can't wait for more

As usual with your videos, this one was excellent.

Awesome history. Thank you.

best and most informative video i never knew i needed. thanks for all the side tangents and people explained along the way!

Amazing video as always!

8:13 Did it come to your mind that maybe Glukharev was the one behind the demise of the people around him? He was probably connected to some other official or KGB, and fed them information about those guys the whole time. EDIT: I now read more comments here and apparently I can promote myself to the rank of Captain Obvious.

"I'm sorry but he can't have a meeting with you at the moment because he has been executed."

I love your channel I just discovered it a few weeks ago, great videos great history, you have really high production value with great delivery style. Thx for your

amazing video as always

Reminds me of the A-10 and that one test where it had to shoot down 12 tanks, being able to swoop down at them as many times as it needed, while they didn't move, it only managed to make 3 immobile, and it was said that all 3 of those could be made to work by the next day, it was hilarious

That ship recoilless is hilarious

Amazing video as always.

Amazing detailed content and flawless interpretation.😍

I think this is one of your best videos yet. Super tight editing and script! The segment about Glukharev's career was awesome. Keep at it dude!

If found this to be an excellent video. It was informative and had some good humor included while giving us the story.

thanks for this amazing content . You bring a context ,to the table ,witch is as important

Love the channel keep up the great work

You are a fantastic story teller.

Yak-9: pew pew pew Yak-9T: Surprise, dirtbags!

I was craving another one of these videos, and this hit the spot. Aw yiss.

I hope you are well Paper Skies! I do so love your productions :) All the best to you mon amie!

The Mig 25 had a similar issue. It was perfectly developed for a role that was not necessary.

@ 07:49. That Spitfire B wing, what a shame. Imagine what that would be worth now, even with the resulting damage...

This video is absolutely fantastic. History, story telling, production.

Excellent! So good I had to watch it twice.

Fantastic video! Thanks for covering these almost unknown topics in the west! 👍

Nice vid dude. It seems like being anywhere near Stalin was hazardous to your health and your families health and probably your friends health too . Glad it's not like that in Russia now ... oh wait.

Very informative and engaging video!

Your video is top👌 as always! Welcome back 😉

Glukharev must’ve been very annoyed, not fearful by the transfers.

Really makes you wonder how much more effective the Soviets could have been in so many areas if there wasn't all the backstabbing and paranoia.

great video, simple easy to understand and great period footage 🍻🍻🍻

Excellent, detailed video.

No wonder the Soviets loved the P39 Airacobra / P63 King Cobra with their M4 37mm cannon shooting through the spinner.

Was fun using it in WT arcade battles back in 2014 tho..

Another awesome video!

Just wanted to say I hope all is well and that your amazing documentaries will continue to grace YT for years to come

"Fighter" "Armed with two 76mm cannons" Holy shit. You're putting 3 inch guns on a light fighter?

Can you imagine what the YAK-9T would do to morale on the German side? It's a plane that looks like any other plane, but hits so hard that one hit is almost certainly a kill shot, and occasionally can be used at ranges that are outside what you normally consider dangerously close (ie: needs to be actively watched so they don't line up a shot) That'd be a *terrifying* thing to know about when you're out and flying sorties, it's like being an infantryman who knows the enemy is fond of using snipers and has no idea if or when one of those soldiers they see off in the distance is gonna come out with one of those anti-tank sniper rifles instead of a normal combat rifle.

Love the channel . . . Thank you

I can't pass-up a video that might contain the kind of ruthless pwnage promised by this title.

The Yak9T was a bomber destroyer. But by the time it saw service, there were few Luftwaffe bombers for it to attack. The later Yak 9K had a 45mm cannon, and could immobilise, damage or destroy armoured vehicles

6:41 I mean, he did develop ineffective weapons that caused harm to the USSR.

I’m very impressed, u got my likes and subscribe, keep making content.

another facinating video!

Could you possibly put together a Video dedicated to the Soviet "BEAR"? Next to the B-52, I have always been fascinated with the "BEAR"!

Fantastic video and I loved the Communist Engineering Cycle slide at 6:12

Absolutely love these videos. Accurate history indeed!

As always a well compiled detailed informative Vid .

Every time I learn about the soviet union I'm amazed at how it managed to have such of a wealth of talented people despite executing so many of them for various silly reasons.

You have a great style for delivering information. Also, watched today so ad money goes to relief efforts in Ukraine, as you told us.

Another classic vid - thanks.

Love your channel.

In other nation, having bad performance at work, or produce bellow expectations only cause risk to career, in Soviet, with codification of вредительство as crime it even risk one's life. I don't think it can accurately being translated into "treason" because its not that simple.

I loved the Yak 9 as a fighter in the Combat Flight Simulator IL-2 Forgotten Battles ! There was something so satisfying about blowing the wings right off an enemy plane with just a hit or two ! 😝 Great job with your video and research again mate!

I don't know if it was on purpose, but that Glukharev portrait and that darn knowing smirk is just perfect.

Love your videos hope you and yours are safe