Introduced into Soviet Air Force service in 1947 and given the NATO reporting name "Feather", the Yakovlev Yak-17 was one of the last aircraft a line of jets developed from the nimble Yak-3 propeller fighter of World War Two fame, by replacing the original piston engine with a German Junkers Jumo 004 jet engine.
Though an overall improvement over the Yak-15, being overall more reliable and easy to fly (and land, thanks to the tricycle landing gear), the Yakovlev Yak-17 was quickly replaced by the far superior Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 starting in 1950.