Yakovlev Yak-3 Aircraft from Russian Federation

The amazing postcard from Russian Federation shows a flying Yakovlev Yak-3 Aircraft used by Soviet Air Force in World War II.

Yakovlev Yak-3 (Russian language: Яковлев Як-3) was a World War II Soviet fighter aircraft. Due to it's robustness and easiness to maintain, it was much liked by pilots and ground crew alike. It was one of the smallest and lightest major combat fighters fielded by any combatant during the war, and its high power-to-weight ratio gave it excellent performance. It proved a formidable dog-fighter. Many pilots considered it a superior aircraft to the P-51D Mustang and the Supermarine Spitfire. After the war ended, it flew with the Yugoslav and Polish Air Forces.

Top speed: 655 km/h

Length: 8.50 m

Wingspan: 9.19 m

First flight: 1943

Introduced: 1944

Retired: 1945

The postcard was sent by Victoria from Siberian city Tyumen as an official Postcrossing postcard bearing the ID: RU-1064906 (BTW, she has uploaded a similar but different postcard on the Official Site ;-) )
Four stamps have been used on the postcard along with a puppy sticker for my kids.

• The stamp on the top-right features another beautiful aircraft - Petlyakov Pe-2. It was a Soviet dive bomber aircraft used during World War II. It was regarded as one of the best ground attack aircraft of the war and it was extremely successful in the roles of heavy fighter, reconnaissance and night fighter. The stamp is a part of Aviation 4v set issued in 2011.
• The two stamps at the bottom show a polar bear and it's baby & a horse with it's offspring. These two stamps are part of a beautiful 5 stamp set Wild Life 5v, issued in 2006.
• The stamp on the top-left side shows a wild rabbit and it was issued as a part of a set of 15 definitive animal stamps in 2008.

Thanks a lot Victoria for a lovely postcard and such amazing stamps!