Yak-36 aircraft: specifications and photos

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Soviet aircraft industry is a source of pride not only for the Soviet Union that has already disappeared from the map, but also for modern engineers who are the heirs of their illustrious predecessors. This article will discuss a unique aircraft. This is the Yak-36 aircraft, the characteristics of which will be considered in detail.

Backstory

The very idea of creating a unique flying machine that would have vertical takeoff and landing appeared long before the creation of the aircraft and was implemented in the form of a helicopter. The production of an aircraft with similar properties to a helicopter dragged on for many years. The main reason for the delay in the creation of such a vessel was that the proportion of all power plants in it would be too large, and the power would be small. As a result, things got off the ground only in the 1940s, when turbojet engines saw the light. From engineering and bench testing to the creation of a real aircraft, a period equal to two decades has passed.

Authors

One of the pioneers in this direction of aircraft construction was an engineer named Shulikov, who in 1947 proposed the use of a special rotary nozzle of a turbojet engine (TRD), which was subsequently installed on an aircraftYak-36.

Somewhat later, the designer Shcherbakov developed a project and began to test a model of an aircraft on a flight stand, which took off vertically and did not have a wing, but was equipped with a pair of rotary turbojet engines mounted on the side surfaces of the fuselage. But the absence of the wing caused an uproar in the engineering environment, which put an end to the continuation of this project.

Yakovlev Design Bureau

The most successful team that was engaged in the creation of vertically taking off aircraft turned out to be OKB-115, headed by the legendary Alexander Sergeevich Yakovlev. This engineer in 1960 proposed to develop the Yak-104 aircraft. It was planned to install two uprated P19-300 engines on this aircraft, which were to be used as lifting and marching elements. Their thrust was 1600 kgf. The lifting engine was supposed to be one motor. The developers planned that with a flight weight of 2800 kilograms and a fuel reserve of 600 kg, the car had to fly at a top speed of 550 km / h and climb to a height of 10,000 meters. In this case, the flight range would be equal to 500 kilometers, and its duration would be one hour and ten minutes.

Project Yak-V

In April 1961, the project of the Council of Ministers was fully prepared for the creation of a single-seat bomber aircraft with a pair of R21-300 engines (each with a thrust of 5000 kgf). This was already the Yak-36 aircraft. The ship was supposed to have a flight speed of 1100-1200 km / h at an altitude of 1000 meters. In this case, the weight during takeoff should notwas to be over 9150 kilograms.

For faster development of the stabilization and control systems, testing the functionality of the rotary nozzle of the Yak-36 engine, proposals were made to test a prototype bomber with the existing R21-300 turbojet engines, which would have a thrust rating of 4200 kgf. In parallel, it was planned to equip the machine with rotary nozzles. This document was published on October 30, 1961.

The development of the Yak-36 aircraft was led by S. G. Mordovin. Engineers were also involved: Sidorov, Pavlov, Bekirbaev, Gorshkov.

Workflow

The creation of a new generation aircraft took place at a time when the UK could already boast of a similar Harrier aircraft, which was equipped with one turbo engine and two pairs of rotary nozzles. However, Soviet engineers went their own way, somewhat different from the Western one.

Given the purpose of the Yak-36 aircraft and what engines it was equipped with, it is not surprising that jet rudders with colossal thrust were installed in the nose and tail parts of the fuselage of the machine. One of them had to be pushed forward at all on a rather long bar. And all because the task of these rudders was not only to control the control of aircraft in transient conditions, but also to ensure the ideal balance of the vessel during static hover. As for the engines themselves, they were installed on the nose of the aircraft, and the nozzles were placed in the centergravity Yak-36.

Machine Features

The layout of the power drive of the aircraft described above led to the need to use a bicycle-type landing gear with a single-wheel support at the nose and a two-wheel support at the rear. The wing supports were retracted in the direction opposite to the Yak-36 flight direction, and were located in the fairings. A highly sensitive air pressure receiver with special sensors for angles of slip and attack was installed on the right fairing. The very design of the airframe was quite typical for the aircraft of those years: the fuselage was semi-monocoque, and the spar wing was equipped with flaps.

Safety

When developing the Yak-36 aircraft, the photo of which is given in the article, the engineers had no idea how the ship would behave during the flight (it would fall to the side during takeoff, or other force majeure circumstances would arise). In this regard, to ensure the safety of the pilot during various emergency situations, the aircraft was provided with a forced ejection device. Also, the aircraft had a full-fledged automatic control system during the flight speed tending to zero.

Production of the aircraft and its testing

The first four ships were built at the plant located on Leningradsky Prospekt in Moscow. One of these aircraft served to test the model for strength. In the spring of 1963, tests were carried out on aircraft number 36, aimed at checking the degree of protection of the engines against the penetration of a reflected jet stream into them, as well as life tests. FROMFor this purpose, the Yak-36 attack aircraft was equipped with two gas shields, one of which was installed on the nose, and the second in front of the turbo engine nozzles.

The second car with tail number 37 worked out only landing and takeoff. Initially, the height was half a meter, and a little later this figure was already 5 meters. In two years, 85 training hangs were completed. On June 25, 1963, the ship had an accident: the landing gear broke during a vertical landing due to a high slip rate.

The third aircraft (tail number 38) helped test the effectiveness of the jet rudders, the autopilot system and the controls located in the cockpit. The developers selected such air consumption rates that allowed the aircraft to be stable while hovering and made the car completely under the control of the pilot.

Identified difficulties

As practice has shown, the most difficult thing was to carry out exactly a vertical landing. The two test pilots had different opinions about the aircraft. So, the pilot Garnaev believed that the landing should be carried out only according to the helicopter type, that is, the car had to be planted from a great height with a preliminary repayment of the speed of movement. In turn, the pilot Mukhin had a different opinion. He said that in a helicopter, the main rotor provides support, while on the Yak-36 this function is guaranteed at different stages of the flight by the wing and jets of gas from the engines. Therefore, it was necessary to take into account the moment of transfer of the lift force from the wing directly to the powerinstallation. And therefore, the landing had to be calculated according to the height indicator, which would correspond to the height of movement in a circle. In the end, it was Mukhin who was right.

Flight testing

The hovering of the Yak-36 was carried out at a height of half a meter above the pit, which was covered with a steel grate. This was done to reduce the level of interference of gas jets. However, having made sure that the vessel was capable of taking off vertically, the grid was soon abandoned and moved to a solid underlying surface. And here there were problems. At that moment, when the landing gear took off from the runway, the plane began to shake violently and it fell to the side. At the same time, the power of the gas rudders was sorely lacking.

To determine the thrust of the engines, the aircraft had to be fixed on the scales. Designers in their research progressed extremely slowly, almost at a snail's pace. Sometimes it happened that a multi-ton aircraft swayed in the air so that it almost did not obey the pilot's commands. It was possible to tame the plane after it turned out to exclude the ingress of the gas flow into the air intake device. This caused the aircraft to be pressed to the ground and become controllable.

First flight

The Yak-36 aircraft, whose history goes back more than one decade, first made a full-fledged flight on July 27, 1964. However, to lift the vessel into the air, Mukhin performed a run and run, since no one undertook to predict his behavior in the air. Most likely, it was after this testthere was a refinement of all three machines, which consisted in the installation of two ventral fins on each of them.

Two months later, the first full hover of the aircraft occurred. Mukhin mastered the machine so much that he even allowed himself to throw the control stick at this moment of the flight, and the plane hovered in place without any deviations.

Everything went to the fact that it was possible to perform full-fledged flights. However, for this it was necessary to work hard for another year and a half. On February 7, 1966, Mukhin performed a vertical take-off, flew in a circular trajectory and landed like an airplane. On March 24, the pilot carried out a vertical takeoff, a flight in a circle and a vertical landing. It is this day that is considered the birthday of the domestic aircraft, which has the ability to take off vertically.

Technical indicators

The aircraft in question had a small payload, and therefore the design bureau developed a modernized model of the Yak-36M, which, after being put into service, received the Yak-38 marking. The new vessel already had a slightly different layout, which proved to be much better in practice.

The Yak-36 aircraft, the technical characteristics of which are listed below, has become a real breakthrough in the domestic aircraft industry. So, its technical data is as follows:

• Vessel length – 16.4 m.
• Wingspan - 10 m.
• Machine height - 4.3 m.
• Wing area - 17 sq. m.
• Empty weight - 5400 kg.
• Takeoff weight - 9400 kg.
• Engine - 2 x turbojetР27В-300.
• Unforced thrust - 2 x 5000 kgf.
• The maximum speed at altitude is 1100 km/h.
• The maximum speed near the ground is 900 km/h.
• Real ceiling - 11000 m.
• Crew - 1 person.
• Weapons - combat load up to 2000 kg. UR air-to-air R-60M, NUR, bombs.

Training model

The Yak-18T was developed back in 1964. Over the years of its use, it has undergone some changes, and in 2006 the Russian government decided to resume mass production of the Yak-18T (series 36). This aircraft is used for training purposes for training cadets of flight universities.

Yak-18T 36 series has the following features:

• It has a three-bladed propeller series AB-803-1-K.
• The dashboard has undergone major changes.
• The real flight range was increased and additional tanks of 180 liters each were mounted in the amount of two pieces.
• Cab doors improved.
• The heating system has been strengthened (a second heater has been installed).
• The fire barrier is made of stainless steel.
• The fuel used is Premium 95 gasoline.

This aircraft was exhibited at various international aviation exhibitions (MAKS-2007 and MAKS-2009).

Regulations state that this aircraft must work 3,500 hours without accidents or 15,000 landings without any calendar restrictions.