Aerostar Yak-52, G-YAKF, doing some flying at the Imperial War Museum Airfield, Duxford on 9 November 2023. The aircraft was made in 1991 and has constructors number 9111205. In the former Soviet Union it was previously on the government/military register as 10 Grey with the DOSAAF (Volunteer Society for Cooperation with the Army, Aviation, and Navy) and registration RA-02090.
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. The Yak-52 was designed as an aerobatic trainer for student 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 standard unmodernised all-metal Yak-52, of which this is one, is powered by a 268 kW (360 hp) Ivchenko 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 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 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 fibreglass laminate propeller.
At 998 Kgs (2,200 lb) empty weight, the Yak-52 is responsive and very capable as an aerobatic aircraft, 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 land with its wheels up.
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