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YAK 52

The YAK 52 is a piston single engine aircraft and was designed by the Yakovlev Design Bureau of Moscow, in the old USSR in the late 70´s.

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All Yak-52’s (more than 2000) have been built by Aerostar of Bacau, Romania. In the old Communist system, aircraft were designed by “design bureaus,” like Yakovlev, Sukhoi and MiG, but were built elsewhere. Kind of like a Boeing (design bureau) 747 built by Lockheed. Aerostar is the only factory to ever produce Yak-52’s.

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The Yak-52, like most Soviet military aircraft, was designed to operate in pretty primitive field conditions and rugged environments with minimal maintenance. Usually, the airports had dirt or sod runways. Some were pretty rough--tall grass and potholes. No problem.

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Not only are Yak-52’s great for aerobatics, they are also smooth, stable, enjoyable cross-country airplanes, too. The airframes were designed for 2000 hours at a continuous 7G’s. Try that in any T-6, T-34, Tucano, etc.

Photo António Escarduça
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The airplane is powered by a nine cylinder Vedeneyev M-14P or M-14PF air cooled radial engine nominally 360/400 hp. The aircraft/engine has a fully inverted fuel and oil system.  The propeller is a two or three bladed variable pitch. Cowl flaps are fitted to assist in the warming up of the engine by selecting them closed.  Once at running temperatures, they must be selected open.  The controls are in the front cockpit which is the "command" cockpit.

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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.

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The landing gear is semi-retractable. The nose gear retracts rearwards and the main gear forwards but all remain exposed against the under surface of the aeroplane to offer greater safety in the event of a wheels up landing. Emergency operation of the landing gear is via an independent pneumatic system which is charged on the ground. 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.

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Fernando Marinho Pereira

The fuel system consists of two tanks in the wings, each of 60 litres capacity feeding a small collector tank in the fuselage.  The engine draws its fuel from the collector tank.  There is a single on-off fuel cock in each cockpit.  Engine priming is accomplished by a two position injector pump operated from the front cockpit.  A fuel drain is provided under the aircraft centre section and drains from the collector tank.

 

The electrical system is supplied by a nominal 28 volt engine driven generator with an associated voltage regulator.  The system is protected by cartridge fuses.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS​

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PERFORMANCE

Photo Carlos Teixeira
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