YAK 9t Russian fighter plane

The Yakovlev Yak-9T was the second variant of the Yak-9 fighter aircraft family. Instead of the usual 20 mm ShVAK cannon, it was armed with a 37 mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-37 cannon with 30 rounds. To compensate for the heavier nose, the cockpit was shifted backwards by 0.4 m. Poor quality control resulted in many oil and coolant leaks from the cannon recoil during test firing, which were solved during the prototype testing stage. Recoil and limited ammunition availability necessitated precise aiming with two- or three-round bursts. The Yak-9T was widely used against enemy ships on the Black Sea and tanks on various fronts (the cannon could penetrate up to 40 mm armour from 500 m), but it was also effective against enemy aircraft (a single cannon hit was usually enough to tear apart the aircraft airframe).