Engine jammed, blades hopelessly warped and the radiator leaking hot steam, the Yak-3 pilot has ejected the canopy and prepares to abandon the doomed plane. But the Heinkel bomber will not reach its destination either.

Reto Roth had commissioned this painting. Extensive research was done for it. The Heinkel is too small to be really detailed, but the Yak-3 was meticulously reconstructed from schematics down to the relative positions of engine exhaust pipes — the Internet is full of wonderful resources if you look. I even found a scanned copy of the Yak-3 piloting manual, a very clear and no-nonsense booklet written by none else but Nesterov, who had pioneered the loop maneuver. My small but first-hand experience with flying a small plane helped with the ground view. I and Reto also looked into ramming techniques and what happens to both planes; it appears that the proper way to ram a larger plane is to try to shear its rudder off with your craft's wing base, which is what has just happened in the picture. The ramming plane's propeller blades bend because of contact with the target, and engine usually jams due to warped axle and overheat. Similar engine damage, leading even to open engine fire, happens to the target, but what kills it is the loss of its rudder and therefore stability, making it spiral out of control. The attacker's wing suffers a lot of crush damage, but usually retains structural integrity, permitting the pilot to abandon the craft or even land it by gliding down.



2005
Acrylics on canvas board

Look at preliminary sketch to this picture here