Stratus has a series of books called 'Spotlight ON:' which basically consists of superb artwork on specific aircraft. This one is on the Yakovlev Yak-3, which many consider to be one of the best Soviet fighters of WWII. The aircraft was an attempt to decrease the weight of the Yak-1/7/9 series in order to provide improved performance. The aerodynamics were improved and the armament in many cases reduced to just two guns in the nose. Unfortunately, the engine for it was designed did not mature enough to be put into large scale production in time so a lower powered version was installed, meaning that not all the performance expectations were realized.

Unlike the previous book in this series, this one devotes all of it color pages to profiles. There are no upper view illustrations, which I guess is not that big a deal as most of these planes were painted in the same scheme of two greys upper and a light blue-grey underside. Despite this, the plane carried a considerable variety of markings differences, especially in the last months of the war when there was little opposition and what was there was not particularly skilled.

All of the profiles are full size and so you basically turn the book 90 degrees to properly view them all. Each entry has a small discriptive paragraph and a short history is provided at the very start. In all, it makes for a superb book for the enthusiast and one that I have no trouble recommending to you.

September 2017

Those outside North America can get this direct from this link, while those in the US will want to go here.

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