Yak-152 / Yak-54M

The Yak-152 trainer aircraft was designed at OJSC Design Bureau named after A.S.Yakovlev and built at the Irkutsk Aviation Plant, a branch of PJSC Irkut Corporation. The aircraft differs from all previous models of this class by its better flight performance characteristics and cutting-edge piloting and navigation equipment. A single-engine double-seat training aircraft for the initial training and professional selection of the Yak-152 pilots was developed at the Yakovlev Design Bureau, which is part of the Irkut Corporation. The cadets of specialized schools will be able to master on it the initial piloting technique, the basics of navigation and the principles of group flights.

The Irkut corporation began manufacturing these aircraft in 2006. The development project of the aircraft was launched in 2014, and the first flight of the Yak-152 took place on September 29, 2016 at the airport of the Irkutsk aircraft building plant.

The main manufacturer of initial pilot training aircraft in Russia was and remains the Yakovlev company. Such cars as Yak-18, then - Yak-50 and Yak-52/54 were actively used and used in many countries. It is no secret that in Vietnamese flight schools cadets learn to “stay in the air” exactly on the Yak-52 piston. However, these honored cars already need replacement.

The primary trainer Yak-152 is included in the UTK-Yak training system and is intended for pupil- pilots primary teaching and professional selection at early stages of training process. Under the concept of the Yakovlev design bureau, the Yak-130 designed for advanced flight training of military pilots, as well as for training them in combat tactics, is an element of the training complex comprising the Yak-152 (Yak-52M) primary trainer, a ground simulator and a computerised classroom.

The Yak-54M is a modification of the long-running mass production piston aircraft Yak-54, developed in accordance with the TTZ Air Force commander in the approved / h 25966 19.12.1991. The decision on the redesignation created training aircraft Yak-54M as the Yak-152 was made by the President of OKB Yakovlev Oleg Demchenko in December 2000 to emphasize its continuity with the known production aircraft Yak-52.

Initial training is provided mainly with Yak-52 planes in military schools. The question on their removal from operation is not solved yet, however obsolescence of the aircraft, and also the aspiration of the Air Forces to receive cheaper, economic and safe plane, forces manufacturers to improve flight techniques. Project Su-49 of design bureau named after Sukhoi participated in Russian competition in 2001, concerning the choice of initial trainer with the piston engine along with Yak-152 project. Sukhoi won, but the Defense Ministry does not fund this topic. The Su-49 was developed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau in R & D programs worth more than $ 7 million. According to experts, the price of the Yak-152 was not less than 100 thousand dollars, significantly cheaper than the Su-49, which cost over 300 thousand dollars.

The Yak-152 creation was then carried out at the expense of the OKB Yakovlev, which was ready to pay for R & D until the first aircraft deliveries growth and the Russian Air Force. However Yak-152 had chances in other countries. In Ukraine for a time there was talk of the possibility to replace the planes Yak-52 and L-39 on Yak-152 and Yak-130.

There was also talk of joining the Yak-152 program with the Chinese AVIC II company so that Yak aircraft can become the base for initial training of pilots in Chinese People's Republic. Agreement with China to jointly develop based on the Yak-152 new training aircraft was signed in 2006. On the basis of the Yak-152 project in China in cooperation with Russian experts created the L-7. The first prototype trainer aircraft Hongdu L-7, which is created in collaboration with OKB Yakovlev, was demonstrated to the public in 2010. At the heart of this educational training aircraft lies precisely in unrealized Russian Yak-152 project.

Aircraft plant "Progress" planned to produce the Yak-58 and Yak-152. Both aircraft are included in the lineup, the release is provided for the development program of the company until 2012. Yakovlev was scheduled to begin transfer of documentation on the Yak-152 in 2009 to OAO" Arsenyev Aviation Company "Progress" (AAC "Progress"). After receiving documentation AAC "Progress" will start the process preparation of production Yak-152.

Command of the Russian Air Force became interested in the project of the new aircraft primary flight training Yak-152 in 2013. Yakovlev won the tender of the MoD on light training aircraft. Previously, the cost of the contract to build a piston training aircraft has been identified in the Ministry of Defense of 300 million rubles. Corporation "Irkut" estimates the cost of the contract to 318.7 million rubles. Plane must pass state tests and be accepted into service no later than 25 November 2016.

The handover of the new trainer aircraft Yak-152 to the Russian Air Force may start in 2016 - according to Interfax-AVN reference to a source in the defense industry complexes Russia in December 2013. "About two years away, the trainer aircraft Yak-152 has the ability to start the transition to the Air Force," - who communicate with media said. It is expected that in the coming year, the Department of Defense will provide technical tasks in the application of combinatorial design training and education, including the Yak-152. Yak-152 aircraft to meet the primary mission of training and professional choice in early stage pilot training.

The issue of the start of serial production of the Russian aircraft modification moved from a dead center only in 2014, when a notice of the start of a competition to create a training complex based on the Yak-152 TCF appeared on the website of public procurement. Soon between the OKB. Yakovlev and the Russian Ministry of Defense signed a contract, the amount of which amounted to 300 million rubles. In the summer of 2014, the Irkutsk Aviation Plant began preparations for the mass production of the new aircraft. In September of the same year, a mock-up commission meeting was held with the participation of representatives of the Ministry of Defense, at which a full-size model of the Yak-152 was presented.

In September 2014 it was reported that the Irkutsk Aviation Plant will launch two samples of the light Yak-152 trainer in 2015. Developed by the expert 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 the air force academies.

The aircraft for the initial flight training of the Yak-152 is scheduled to start mass production in March 2017, commander-in-chief of the Russian Aerospace Command, Viktor Bondarev, said 26 June 2016. “He is due to enter the series in March 2017,” said the commander-in-chief during the action “Contract Service - your choice!” to reporters. “We are obliged to do this, and I think that the industry will do it. According to the plans, the plane should fly over the next two months and continue to undergo tests, confirm its qualities and go on to mass production,” Bondarev explained, question about the date of the first flight of the Yak-152.

Four Yak-152 primary trainer aircraft have been constructed so far for trials by the Russian Defense Ministry, Irkut Corporation President Oleg Demchenko told Sputnik 23 March 2017. He added that one Yak-152 designated for static tests was at the Moscow-based Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI), while the fourth aircraft was intended for endurance tests. "To date, we have built four machines. The first has been undergoing flight tests since September 2016. Another aircraft will join the program in the near future," Demchenko said

In August 2017, the president of the United Aircraft Building Corporation (UAC), Yuri Slyusar, told reporters that the new Yak-152 trainer will be launched in 2018.

The Irkutsk Aviation Plant is ready to begin producing new Yak-152 training aircraft, a source in the aviation industry told Interfax 13 January 2018. "At the Irkutsk Aviation Plant (part of the Irkut Corporation - IF), a large amount of work was done on preparing the production of the Yak-152. Currently, the plant is fully technically and technologically equipped for the production of a new aircraft," said the agency interlocutor. According to him, for the production of the Yak-152, the plant introduced improved technologies, including installed slipways with electric drives. “After the completion of state tests, the serial production of the Yak-152 will be adjusted without difficulty, with the possibility of a rapid increase in production rates depending on orders for both the Aerospace Forces and DOSAAF and for foreign customers,” the source said.

In May 2018 specialists of the Zhukovsky Central AeroHydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI, a member of the National Research Center “Zhukovsky Institute”) conducted the final stage of strength static tests of the Yak-152 trainer aircraft. The aircraft successfully withstood the loads and did not suffer permanent distortion. The full cycle of experiments lasted for more than a year. TsAGI structural engineers at the preparatory stage designed and installed loading systems, prepared instrumentation, and loaded an automated control system.

Then engineers successively tested the wing, pilot canopy, fuselage, wing mechanization, undercarriage, engine hinge fittings, pilot seat attachment structure and engine attachments, control wiring, and vertical and horizontal stabilizers. At each step the experts brought their efforts first to operational and then calculated (i.e. limiting) values and measured the intensity and deformations in the design. The obtained experimental data confirm the aircraft meets domestic standards. In addition, TsAGI will give recommendations to remove speed and loading intensity restrictions, imposed after the first Yak-152 flight in 2016.

Demand for the Yak-152 aircraft in Russia will be from 200 to 800 aircraft.