On March 26, a unique event took place over the Omaka airfield in Blenheim, New Zealand - a Soviet Yak-7B fighter took to the air. The aircraft with tail number ZK-YKB coped perfectly with the first flight and successfully completed the second on March 29.
This is the only flying Yak-7B in the world. Its debut to the general public is scheduled for the Warbirds Over Wanaka airshow on April 3–5, 2026.
The aircraft was reconstructed by the New Zealand company JEM Aviation on the basis of a Yak-11 training aircraft, which arrived in New Zealand from the USA in 2019.
In the 1980s, the French Alain Capel and Jean Salis brought the plane from Egypt to La Ferté-Alais. Prior to that, it was in service with the Egyptian Air Force as LET C-11 – a licensed Czechoslovak copy of the Soviet Yak-11 trainer.
Then the car went to the USA, where the American Robert Day rebuilt it into a single-seat fighter, replacing the Soviet ASH-21 star-shaped engine with the American V-shaped Allison V-1710, which is also installed on the P-39 Airacobra, P-40 Warhawk and P-51 Mustang.