Something I don't see every day, or ever.  Heard the radial coming.

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Sweet! I wonder if those Russian planes were built in America if they could have been even better. I've heard Russian engine oils were garbage and there were a lot of failures from that.

Packard made the Merlin engine on assembly lines better than Rolls Royce did as hand fitted pieces crafted one at a time. Imagine what we could have done for the Yak-3!

It's time...

When I had my Pitts S2A in 1990-1991 I traded rides with a guy who was importing these at the Flying Cloud Airport.

The Pitts and the Yak-52 we equals in the air with a bit of vertical penetration advantage to the Yak.

Landing was more difficult in the Pitts, but the mechanical nightmare of the YAK compared to the old technology S2A was not worth the even trade he was offering.

I've always thought they were kind of goofy, even for a Russian aircraft.   The usual russian oddities (pneumatics for all the things instead of hydraulics or electrical stuff), the odd pneumatic starter, and so on sure but the landing gear was what gets me about it.   It's not really retractable, it's more "foldable".    I'm sure there is a reason for it that makes great sense to Russians.

Compared to an RV, they have a larger turn rate, lower turn radius, and generally inferior acceleration/climb/cruise or really just energy addition in any given flight regime in my experience.

But dang they are built tough.    It's the "Strong like Horse, Smart like Tractor" mindset of Russian things again I suppose.