"Russia to start testing future Yak-152 trainer aircraft ..." Topic

…by 2016 .

"The Irkutsk Aviation Plant will launch in 2015 two samples of the light Yak-152 trainer, local news agency said on Saturday, September 27. Developed by Yakovlev Design Bureau, which is part of the Irkut Corporation, the new trainer is destined for primary pilot preparation. The "flying desk" will be tested in 2016, after which it will go into serial production. For initial training, the Yak-152 plans to use flight professionals from russian air force academies…"

Full article here
link

Nice little plane.

Amicalement
Armand

Wonder if they will consider exporting those to the US, as a light primary trainer would be a 'nice to have if I won the lottery' item.

Intake seems to indicate usage of old fashioned radial engine instead of more modern flat engines use in Western piston engined trainers.

I can understand avoiding a turboprop due to fuel costs.

But then Yak 152 seems to imply modernised Yak 52.

I'd missed that the beast had a radial engine. It's not like the flat engines used by most American planes are significantly newer technology (both were around in the 1930s), but the problem with radial engines is their oil consumption.

When the engine isn't running, oil tends to settle in the bottom cylinders, and then either leak out onto the ground (or inside the cowling) or potentially hydraulically lock a cylinder or two. So you need to walk the engine through a couple revolutions by hand to get the oil in the cylinders out into the exhaust. And then once the engine starts, all that oil gets burned. This can result in some excitement on the ramp if your airport isn't used to radials starting up. People see big cloud of black smoke and assume that your airplane is on fire!

But I think that Avgas is still cheaper than Jet fuel in the US.