72195 SOVIET YAKOVLEV YAK-18 TANDEM TWO-SEAT TRAINER AIRCRAFT ON SKIS

The Yakovlev Yak-18 was a metal construction training aircraft, covered with linen, in the system of a self-supporting Soviet-made low wing aircraft. The drive was provided by a single M-11 FR radial engine with 160 HP. The flight of the prototype took place in 1946, and serial production began in the USSR in 1947. In total, more than 7,000 copies of the Yak-18 were produced. The Yakovlev Yak-18 was created as a successor to the PO-2 and UT-2 aircraft, which were outdated in the 1940s. It turned out to be a very easy to pilot design, almost failure-free, which quickly gained favorable opinions among aviation school students. Several development versions were created in the course of serial production. The first one (Yak-18A) had a more powerful engine and a front wheel. One of the next (Yak-18PM) was a single-seater aerobatic plane. In 1967, the Yak-18T version was created, i.e. a liaison, training and sanitary aircraft. Yakovlev Yak-18, due to the high value of the structure, found many foreign customers, including Austria, Romania and Poland.