During 1948 to 1949 a total of 430 Yak-17s were produced. From 1951 to 1953 11 of the type were delivered to Poland and used to convert pilots from Yak-9s to jet-powered Yak-23s and to train new pilots. This particular Yak-17 flew with the Polish AF with serial 4 but was transferred in 1953 to the Instytut Lotnictwa (Institute of Aviation, hence IL on the nose), registered SP-GLM and used to prepare test pilots for flight testing of the new TS-11 Iskra, then under development. After the final flight in 1960 it was transferred to the museum.