The beast featured on Yakovlev's site

December 2008 Back in June this year, I sent some pictures of the beast to Yakovlev Design Bureau (YDB) to let them know at least one of their birds is still flying on the other side of the world. In turn, they kindly posted my email and pictures of the beast on their website.

When I bought 853101 from Mark Jefferies of Yak UK, he asked YDB to provide written confirmation that this bird had never served with the Soviet National Aerobatics team and had never been written off. There was a reason for needing such confirmation.

Aircraft flown by the Soviet National team were typically scrapped after about 40 to 50 flight hours. Team pilots routinely flew their Yak-50s beyond the +8G/-5G limit load factors; such was the brutal reality of modern world competition aerobatics.

So these poor birds ended up with buckled skin panels or worse, overstressed wing spars or suffered damage to other major load bearing components.

In many cases, severely damaged machines were simply scrapped. And in the Soviet era, since the state owned everything, the poor economics of the practice didn't matter. In other cases where the aircraft weren't scrapped, they were overhauled and sent out to DOSAAF (military flying club) units for less hazardous duty.

By 1984, the Soviet National team had re-equipped with Yak-55 birds. Therefore any Yak-50s built in 1985 and 1986 (last production year), never served with the team.

My particular aircraft (853101) didn't serve with the Soviet National team but was a DOSAAF bird in the Ukraine. The "85" meant it was built in 1985 while the next two digits "31" meant it was part of the 31st batch of ten units. And the last two digits "01" meant that it was the first unit in batch 31.

In all, YDB built 312 units. So this meant 31 full batches ten units each plus two extra units were produced.

Before YDB's confirmation, I had already concluded it wasn't a team bird because of its construction (or serial) number. And indeed, 853101's original Russian log books show it flew 220 hours with the Ukrainian DOSAAF as Blue 59 until it was taken out of service some time after the collapse of the USSR in 1991.

While undertaking research into various Yak-50s offered for sale to me, I came across an unexpected source of information on the history of some of them. A Dutch aviation enthusiast, Marcel de Jong, had visited a number of ex-Soviet air bases in the mid to late 1990s.

I was happened to find his website and studied his comprehensive list of aircraft in which serial numbers, fuselage numbers and general condition were noted. After wading through a large number of aircraft types, I found an entry listing a Yak-50 with the serial number 853101.

Marcel noted that this Yak-50 was a DOSAAF bird with fuselage number 59 Blue. It was in storage (probably just parked) at a former Soviet airbase in Odessa-Lyman, Ukraine in 1996.

This was the independent confirmation I needed to corroborate YDB's information along with the log books. It also meant that the rest of 853101's history from the time of its rescue from Ukraine to overhaul by Shakhty Aviation in Rostov and then onto the UK, was very likely to be true as well.

I wasn't concerned about the aircraft's history after its arrival into the UK in 1998, as it was well documented. I was more interested about its life during the Soviet era.

From lonely storage to renewed life

Yak-50 in flight. Its classic lines echo Alexander Yakovlev's WW2 fighter design heritage.


February 2007 Yak-50 serial number 853101 stored inside Yak UK's hangar in Little Gransden. Registered as G-CBPO, the aircraft had not flown since 2002. Prior to restoration and life in the UK, 853101 had been noted as a derelict aircraft (by an aviation enthusiast) at an airbase in Odessa-Lyman, Ukraine, after serving as 59 Blue with DOSAAF (USSR military flying club). I bought the aircraft from Mark Jefferies (Yak UK), who in turn had bought it from the UK-based owner.


The original cockpit layout was unchanged from the time of manufacture. Note the Russian Baklan 5 VHF radio beneath the switch bank.


April 2007 Out of a dark and dusty hangar and into the light. The Russian registration RA-44476 remained on the aircraft from the time it had previously been on the Russian register. The UK registration G-CBPO had not been painted on - presumably because the owner hadn't bothered to do so.


Note how far the cockpit is set back from the nose; limiting forward visibility while taxiing on the ground. The cockpit position is similar to that of the Spitfire and Corsair.


June 2007 The bird was disassembled for an overhaul and complete repaint in Lithuania.


September 2007 In Lithuania, 853101's wing feathers were removed and the paint stripped for a complete structural inspection and repair as necessary exercise.


Similarly, the bird's fuselage was stripped of equipment and paint. No major structural problems were found during the non-destructive testing and inspection of the airframe.


Some rivets around the undercarriage attachment box were found to be loose and were replaced. A small skin crack was also repaired with a doubler strip as seen in the photo.


The engine was completely disassembled for cleaning, overhaul and repainting. Note the patches of rust on some components. Mark's comment was that it's important for scheduled annual inspections to be performed even though an aircraft may not be flown much.


October 2007 Fuselage in the paint shop with the primer coat applied.


Fuselage after the dark grey on medium grey camouflage pattern was applied.


Then the WW2 era Soviet red star was applied. Other markings were to follow.


Underside view of completed wing feathers with the undercarriage wheel recess visible.


Fuselage with the rest of its markings applied. Note the mechanic inside the cockpit area. He is assembling the various electrical lines, mechanical controls and pneumatic lines leading into the cockpit. Another mechanic is working on the remounted engine.


Repainted tail feathers. All the control surfaces (ailerons, elevators and rudder) were re-covered with Ceconite fabric. Note the hefty flanges and bolts attaching the rear base of the vertical fin to the rear end of the fuselage.


The business end of 853101. A nine cylinder, 10 litre capacity, 360 hp radial engine, the Vedeneyev M-14P and its other 400+ hp versions are popular aerobatic engines of choice today. Note the big brown container mounted on the engine firewall. It's the engine oil tank!

Overhauled and repainted engine with the propeller, spinner and cooling shutters attached.

Twin fuselage fuel tanks located between the engine firewall and cockpit. Total capacity is 127 litres.


Two air bottles, one for normal use and the other for emergency undercarriage extension. The pneumatic system is used for starting the engine and powering the retractable undercarriage.


Undercarriage uplock mechanism. The rectangular reddish block is the microswitch to detect undercarriage position (retracted or extended), while the grey and black cylindrical block is the actuator for releasing the undercarriage uplock.


This is my all time favourite office. Note there is a hole (left of control stick) for one more instrument to be fitted - an air-switch flight hours meter. I changed the cockpit and panel layout by replacing the Baklan radio with a Becker radio and transponder combination in a new housing (below switch bank), adding the flight hours meter, moving the accelerometer (G-meter) from the top of the glare shield (left of the compass) to the right side of the instrument panel (above the primer's oval knob). This cleared the view over the nose.


853101's nose with the top engine cowling attached and the bottom cowling in the foreground.


Yak-50 serial number 853101 out of the workshop and before being shipped to me in Australia.