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Yakovlev Yak-58
Role	Six-seat cabin monoplane
National origin	Russia
Manufacturer	Yakovlev
First flight	26 December 1993

The Yakovlev Yak-58 is a small, multi-role utility transport and business aircraft. The aircraft features a pusher engine and twin boom tail. It saw limited production in the late 1990s.^[1]

[edit] History

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, as military contracts evaporated, the Yakovlev OKB design studio was forced to convert to designing civilian aircraft to stay in business. Their first post-Soviet design was the Yak-58, a small multi-role utility transport designed to appeal to as many prospective buyers as possible. It is one of the only pusher propeller designs ever produced which uses a radial engine.^[1]

[edit] Design

The design is unconventional, and featured a streamlined bullet-shaped fuselage with a hinged door on the left and a large sliding door further back on the right. Normal seating is the pilot on the left, and five passengers, but the interior can be arranged to hold 450kg (992lbs) of cargo. The aircraft can also be configured as an ambulance, or for a variety of special missions. The rounded fuselage is sharply pointed at the front before tapering back to a single rear-facing radial engine enclosed within a circular shroud. The propeller is a three-blade constant-speed design. The aircraft's low wing is designed for high lift rather than high speed. Twin booms project back from the wing's leading edge, ending in sharply sweptback and slightly inward inclined vertical fins, joined at the top by the tailplane. Both the elevator and narrow rudders are manually operated.^[1]

The undercarriage consists of a single nosewheel that retracts forward, as well as twin main units which retract inward. Typical of Yak, extra wide tires were installed to allow the aircraft to operate from rough airstrips. Flaps and undercarriage operations are pneumatic.^[1]

[edit] Testing

Project directors for the Yak-58 were Yu I Yankevich and D K Drach. Chief engineer was V I Baranov. The aircraft was first revealed to the public as a model exhibited in mid-1990, and a full-scale mock-up 1991. The wing was then enlarged from 14sq m to 20sq m. Though production aircraft are to be equipped with the Vedeneyev M-16 engine, the absence of that engine during the aircraft's development meant that all prototypes had to use the 355hp Vedeneyev M-14PT, a pusher version of the radial engine used in many other Yak aircraft. The development program was based at Tbilisi. The first prototype made its first flight on 26 December 1993, piloted by A A Sinitsyn and later by Yu I Mitikov. This aircraft was written-off in an accident on 27 May 1994, but the second prototype began flight tests on 10 October 1994. At the beginning of 1996 there were four flying prototypes, plus two static and fatigue test airframes.^[1]

Yakovlev claimed in 1997 that it had orders for 250 Yak-58, but since then only a few have been produced.^[1]

[edit] Specifications (Yak-58)

General characteristics

Crew: one, pilot
Length: 8.55 m (28 ft ½ in)
Wingspan: 12.7 m (41 ft 8 in)
Height: ()
Empty weight: 1,270 kg (2,800 lb)
Loaded weight: 2,125 kg (4,685 lb)
Powerplant: × , () each

Performance

Maximum speed: 290 km/h, 180 mph
Range: 1,200 km, 746 miles ()
Service ceiling: 4,000 m (13,123 ft)

[edit] See also

Comparable aircraft

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Gunston, 1997

[edit] Bibliography

Gunston, Bill. Yakovlev Aircraft since 1924. London, UK: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1997. ISBN 1-55750-978-6.

[edit] External links

[Gunston-0] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Gunston, 1997

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