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.

Design and development

Following the collapse of the

Soviet Union 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 national ...

, as military contracts evaporated, the Yakovlev design bureau 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. The Yak-58 is a low-winged

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

pusher configuration In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in nor ...

, powered by a

Vedeneyev M14P The Vedeneyev M14P is a Russian nine-cylinder, four-stroke, air-cooled, petrol-powered radial engine. Producing , its design dates from the 1940s (Kotelnikov 2005), and is itself a development of the Ivchenko AI-14 engine. The engine has been ...

radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is ca ...

mounted at the rear of the fuselage nacelle, driving a three-bladed propeller. Rather than conventional tailbooms, the two highly swept fins were mounted directly to the wing, and were joined by the

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplane ...

. The undercarriage is a retractable tricycle arrangement. Seats are fitted for a pilot and five passengers, with the option of replacing the passengers by 450 kg (990 kg) of cargo.Gunston and Gordon 1997, p. 211.Gordon, Komissarov and Komissarov 2005, p. 324.

Testing

The first prototype made its maiden flight at

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

on 26 December 1993,Gordon, Komissarov and Komissarov 2005, p. 325. although some sources state that the first flight did not occur until 17 April 1994.Taylor 1999, p. 487. This aircraft was wrecked in a fatal crash at the

ILA Berlin Air Show The ILA Berlin Air Show (German: Internationale Luft- und Raumfahrtausstellung (ILA)) combines a major trade exhibition for the aerospace and defence industries with a public airshow. It is held every even year at the new Berlin ExpoCenter Air ...

on 27 May 1994,''Flight International'' 8–14 June 1994, p. 10. with the second prototype flying on 10 October 1994. Yakovlev claimed in 1997 that it had orders for 250 Yak-58s,Gunston and Gordon 1997, p. 212. with an

ELINT Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ( ...

version and a version replacing the radial engine with a

turboprop A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. Fuel ...

planned. Limited production occurred at Tbilisi, however, due to funding problems and political problems between Georgia and Russia, Yakovlev attempted to restart the project in 2003, possibly with production moved back to Russia.Gordon, Komissarov and Komissarov 2005, pp. 325–326.

Specifications (Yak-58)

References

Bibliography

* Gordon, Yefim, Dmitry Komissarov and Sergey Komissarov. ''OKB Yakovlev: A History of the Design Bureau and its Aircraft''. Hinkley, UK: Midland Publishing, 2005. . * Gunston, Bill and Yefim Gordon. ''Yakovlev Aircraft since 1924''. London, UK: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1997. .
"ILA '94 Show News: Crash deaths blight Berlin show opening"
''

Flight International ''Flight International'' is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", it is the world's oldes ...

'', 8–14 June 1994. p. 10. * Taylor, Michael J. H. ''Brassey's World Aircraft & Systems Directory 1999/2000 Edition''. London: Brassey's, 1999. .

External links