Yakovlev Yak-50 was an early experimental

turbojet The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, an ...

interceptor aircraft An interceptor aircraft, or simply interceptor, is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically for the defensive interception role against an attacking enemy aircraft, particularly bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Aircraft that are c ...

designed in 1948 by the

Yakovlev The Joint-stock company, JSC A.S. Yakovlev Design Bureau (russian: ОАО Опытно-конструкторское бюро им. А.С. Яковлева) is a Russian aircraft designer and manufacturer (design office prefix Yak). Its head offi ...

OKB OKB is a transliteration of the Russian initials of "" – , meaning 'experiment and design bureau'. During the Soviet era, OKBs were closed institutions working on design and prototyping of advanced technology, usually for military applications. ...

in the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. The aircraft was essentially a stretched version of the

Yakovlev Yak-30 (1948) The Yakovlev Yak-30 was an experimental Soviet interceptor from the late 1940s. Derived from the Yak-25, from which it differed primarily in having wings sweptback 35° at quarter chord, the Yak-30 retained the fuselage, tail surfaces and und ...

, with a more powerful engine and greater wing sweep. The Yak-50 is perhaps most significant as the first Yakovlev aircraft equipped with ''velosipednoye'' (bicycle) landing gear, a trademark of later Yakovlev designs. The Yak-50 designation was later reused for a propeller-driven aerobatic and trainer aircraft.Gunston, 1997

Development and design

On February 21, 1949 a Sovmin order requested the Yakovlev OKB to design a lightweight, radar-equipped, all-weather and night interceptor capable of Mach 0.97 at 4,000 m (13,000 ft). The aircraft was to utilize the

Klimov VK-1 The Klimov VK-1 was the first Soviet jet engine to see significant production. It was developed by and first produced by the GAZ 116 works. Derived from the Rolls-Royce Nene, the engine was also built under licence in China as the Wopen WP-5. ...

engine which first appeared on Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 and

MiG-17 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-17; NATO reporting name: Fresco) is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the Soviet Union from 1952 and was operated by air forces internationally. The MiG-17 w ...

fighters. This engine was itself a Soviet copy of the British

Rolls-Royce Nene The Rolls-Royce RB.41 Nene is a 1940s British centrifugal compressor turbojet engine. The Nene was a complete redesign, rather than a scaled-up Rolls-Royce Derwent"Rolls-Royce Aero Engines" Bill Gunston, Patrick Stephens Limited 1989, , p.111 w ...

centrifugal turbojet initially known as the RD-45. The leading fighter OKBs each created a prototype to meet the requirement, which included the

Lavochkin La-200 The Lavochkin La-200 (a.k.a. Aircraft 200) was a two-seater, swept winged, night/all-weather jet interceptor designed and manufactured by the Soviet Union's Lavochkin Design Bureau from 1948. Design and development In response to a requireme ...

, MiG I-320, Sukhoi Su-15 (unrelated to the later aircraft with the same designation) and the Yak-50 (again, unrelated to the later aircraft). A major difference was that while Yakolev used one engine, the other design bureaus used two.Gunston, 1997

Testing

The aircraft first flew on 15 July 1949,Gunston, 1997 with test pilot Anokhin achieving supersonic speed (Mach 1.03 at 10,000 m (33,000 ft)) in a shallow dive during one of the test flights. Ultimately, none of the newly developed aircraft was selected, and an upgraded

was eventually employed. Yakolev later used the ''velosipednoye'' landing gear in the Yak-140 fighter and the Yak-120, and later in the Yak-25 and

Yak-28 The Yakovlev Yak-28 (russian: Яковлев Як-28) is a swept wing, turbojet-powered combat aircraft used by the Soviet Union. Produced initially as a tactical bomber, it was also manufactured in reconnaissance, electronic warfare, intercep ...

where it proved highly successful.Gunston, 1997 The Yak-50 never received an ASCC name or USAF reporting number.Gunston, 1997

Operators

; *

Soviet Air Force The Soviet Air Forces ( rus, Военно-воздушные силы, r=Voyenno-vozdushnyye sily, VVS; literally "Military Air Forces") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces ...

Specifications

References

* Gunston, Bill. ''Yakovlev Aircraft since 1924''. London, UK: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1997. .

External links