The Yakovlevs
Country
UK
Size
2 to 6 Aircraft
Base
Henstridge Airfield
The Team Yakovlevs were the UK's premier formation aerobatic team, flying a mixture of powerful Russian aerobatic aircraft the single-seat Yak-50 and two-seat supercharged and specially lightened Yak-52 'Super'. These reliable and robust aircraft were designed for advanced aerobatics training and competition aerobatics.
The team owned 10 Yaks in total with 8 flying at any one time and could perform solo displays or formation aerobatics with 2 to 6 aircraft.
The team was formed in December 1999 and since then the Team Yakovlevs demonstrated their skills at airshows all over the world going as far as India and China.
Their display programme involved close formation aerobatics in different formations as well as breaks and opposition passes. The team could also perform the impressive sky typing where five aircraft in line-abreast formation at 10,000ft emit a pulse of smoke creating a unique Sky Billboard message.
On the 15th of March 2023 it was announced that after 25 years and over 2000 displays across 13 countries, the team has taken the tough decision to cease all flying operations with immediate effect.
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Yakovlev Yak-50
The Yakovlev Yak-50 aerobatic aircraft is a single-seat all-metal low-wing monoplane with retractable main wheels and an exposed tail wheel. The control surfaces are fabric-covered to save weight. The aircraft is not equipped with flaps.
The supercharged engine may be the Vedeneyev M14P (standard production line version), M14PF or M14R, producing between 360 and 450 hp and driving the propeller via a reduction gearbox. The landing gear, brakes and engine starter are operated by compressed air. Replenished by an engine-driven compressor, the main and emergency air bottles are contained within the forward fuselage between the firewall and fuel tanks.
The Yak-50 has exceptionally fine handling characteristics enhanced by a relatively high power-to-weight ratio. It has a tough and agile airframe - the type was twice World Aerobatic Champion. It has been used as a military trainer by several countries.
Aircraft serving with the Soviet National Aerobatic team were typically scrapped after about 50 flight hours, due to the intense stresses imposed on the airframe during unlimited aerobatics. There were numerous cases of main spar failure; among its victims were the 1976 World Aerobatic Champion Viktor Letsko and many others.
Two modifications were made to strengthen the wings spars for the extreme loads experienced during unlimited aerobatics, and no further failures occurred.
Other aircraft serving with DOSAAF were "officially" scrapped or placed into storage after they were superseded by the Yak-55 and Su-26.
It is these aircraft that form the bulk of airworthy "survivors" today. Only a few (approx. 90+) are airworthy and remain in private hands in Europe, the USA, Australia and Canada.
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Yakovlev Yak-52
The Yakovlev Yak-52 is a Soviet primary trainer aircraft which first flew in 1976. It was produced in Romania from 1977 to 1998 by Aerostar, as Iak-52, which gained manufacturing rights under agreement within the former COMECON socialist trade organisation. The Yak-52 was designed as an aerobatic trainer for students in the Soviet DOSAAF training organisation, which trained civilian sport pilots and military pilots. Currently the Yak-52 is used in the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Aerobatic Yak 52 Competition, a popular powered aircraft one-design World Aerobatic Championship.
A descendant of the single-seat competition aerobatic Yakovlev Yak-50, the all-metal Yak-52 is powered by a 268 kW (360 hp) Vedeneyev M14P nine-cylinder radial engine.
Since the aircraft was designed to serve as a military trainer, the development of the aircraft incorporates a number of features to be found on the early postwar fighters: notably the cockpit tandem layout (instrument panel, seat design, cockpit opening system), tail design, tricycle landing gear, fuselage mixed construction (monocoque with steel tube construction), inner flaps, controls position, access panels on sides of the fuselage, even the location of the radio antenna and overall dimensions of the airplane, which extensively match the Yakovlev Yak-17 UTI jet fighter trainer (NATO code name Magnet).
The aircraft has fuel and oil systems permitting inverted flight for as long as two minutes. The engine drives a two-bladed counter-clockwise rotating, variable pitch, wood and fiberglass laminate propeller.
At 998 kg (2,200 lb) empty weight, the Yak-52 is responsive and very capable as an aerobatic aircraft. Yet it is also easy to fly and land. It has been used in international aerobatic competition up to the Advanced level. It is stressed to +7 and –5 Gs, rolls (to the right) at well more than 180 degrees/second (measured up to 352 degrees/second to the right), and is capable of every manoeuvre in the Aresti catalog.
The Yak-52, like most Soviet military aircraft, was designed to operate in rugged environments with minimal maintenance. One of its key features, unusual in western aircraft, is its extensive pneumatic system. Engine starting, landing gear, flaps, and wheel brakes are all pneumatically actuated. Spherical storage bottles for air, replenished by an engine driven compressor, are situated behind the rear cockpit and contents displayed on the instrument panels. The operating pressure is between 10 and 50 bars (145 and 725 psi) and an emergency circuit is reserved for lowering the undercarriage if the normal supply is exhausted or the compressor fails. Additionally both main and reserve bottles can be charged from a port on the ground with compressed air, usually from a scuba type air bottle. The ground steering/braking arrangement, especially, takes some adjustment for flyers accustomed to hydraulics, because the aircraft uses differential braking controlled by rudder pedals and a hand-operated lever on the control stick.
The tricycle landing gear is retractable, but it remains partially exposed in the retracted position, affording both a useful level of drag in down manoeuvres and a measure of protection should the aircraft be forced to land "wheels up."
A number of "westernised" versions of the Yak-52 are now produced. The replacement of the existing Soviet avionics, fitting of a three-blade propeller and the M14PF 298 kW (400 hp) upgrade to the usual 360 hp M14P engine, and conversion to conventional "tail-dragger" landing gear (Yak-52TD) are some of the modifications made to the standard aircraft. There is also a factory-produced Yak-52TW tail-dragger version. The TW has an extra 120 l (32 US gal) of fuel capacity in two extra wing tanks, the M14PF engine designated & three blade propeller, an electric start, and modern instruments.
On April 16, 2004, a modernised variant Yak-52M was flown in Russia. It is fitted with modernised M-14Kh engine, three-blade propeller, and other modifications.
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