Yakovlev Yak-23
| Yak-23 | |
|---|---|
| Polish Yak-23 in the Lubuskie Muzeum Wojskowe, Drzonów | |
| General information | |
| Type | Fighter aircraft |
| Manufacturer | Yakovlev |
| Primary users | Soviet Air Forces |
| Number built | 316 + 3 prototypes |
| History | |
| Manufactured | October 1949–January 1951 |
| Introduction date | 1949 |
| First flight | 8 July 1947 |
| Retired | Early 1960s |
| Developed from | Yakovlev Yak-17 |
The Yakovlev Yak-23 (Russian: Яковлев Як-23; USAF/DoD reporting name Type 28, NATO reporting name Flora) is an early Soviet jet fighter with a straight wing. It was developed from the Yak-17 in the late 1940s and used a reverse-engineered copy of a British engine. It was not built in large numbers as it was inferior in performance to the swept-wing Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15. Many Yak-23s were exported to the Warsaw Pact nations and remained in service for most of the 1950s, although some were still in use a decade later.