Puneet Varma (Editor)

Yakovlev Yak 17

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Top speed
  
744 km/h

Length
  
8.78 m

First flight
  
June 1947

Wingspan
  
9.2 m

Engine type
  
Junkers Jumo 004

Number of seats
  
2

Yakovlev Yak-17 Yakovlev Yak17 Photo and video The history and characteristics

Manufacturer
  
Tbilisi Aircraft Manufacturing

The Yakovlev Yak-17 (Russian: Як-17, USAF/DOD designation Type 16, NATO reporting name "Feather") was an early Soviet jet fighter. It was developed from the Yak-15, the primary difference being tricycle landing gear. The trainer version, known as the Yak-17UTI (NATO reporting name "Magnet"), was the only Soviet jet trainer of the 1940s. Both aircraft were exported in small numbers and the Yak-17 was soon replaced by the far superior Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 beginning in 1950.

Contents

Yakovlev Yak-17 1000 images about Yakovlev Yak15 on Pinterest Names Feathers

Design and development

Yakovlev Yak-17 WINGS PALETTE Yakovlev Yak17 FeatherMagnet USSRRussia

After the state acceptance trials of the Yak-15 in May 1947 recommended that the aircraft be modified with a tricycle landing gear more suitable for jet-powered aircraft, the Yakovlev design bureau (OKB) began design of the Yak-15U or Yak-15U-RD-10 (uloochshenny - improved).

Yakovlev Yak-17 Yak17 Yakovlev FeatherMagnet

The main gear had to be redesigned to place the wheels behind the aircraft's center of gravity. The main gear was moved behind the front spar, and when retracted filled most of the space between the spars. This caused a major redesign of the fuel tanks and reduced their capacity to just 680 liters (150 gallons). This necessitated the addition of two 200-liter (44 imp gal; 53 U.S. gal) drop tanks, which hung under the tip of each wing. The addition of the tip tanks required a redesign of the structure of the wing so that the aircraft could still maintain a load bearing of 12g. The vertical stabilizer was enlarged and a periscope was also added above the windscreen on most series aircraft. Armament, systems, and equipment were virtually unchanged.

Operational history

The Yak-17 was first publicly displayed at the Soviet Aviation Day of 1949, at Tushino.

Yakovlev Yak-17 httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

In operation, the Yak-17 had most of the same faults as its predecessor, including relatively low speed and range, and an unreliable engine (still based upon the German Junkers Jumo 004) with a complicated starting procedure. On the other hand, its handling was very simple, and similar to popular propeller fighters such as the Yak-3 and Yak-9. This made it an excellent transitional machine to jet fighters. As a result, the trainer version Yak-17UTI accounted for the majority of production, and almost all series-built Yak-17s were of this tandem, dual-control trainer version, which filled an important need in all Soviet air arms.

Yakovlev Yak-17 Yakovlev Yak17 fighter

Surviving Yak-17s can be viewed at the Central Air Force Museum at Monino, outside of Moscow and the Prague Aviation Museum at Kbely Airport, near Prague, Czech Republic. Surviving Yak-17UTIs include one example at the Polish Aviation Museum near Kraków and the Chinese Aviation Museum, near Beijing.

Yak-17UTI

The most-produced variant of the Yak-17, the Yak-17UTI was a tandem-seat, dual-control trainer.

Fuel capacity was greatly reduced, owing to the elimination of the wingtip tanks. Initially it was planned to include a single UBS machine gun, but this was omitted on series-produced aircraft. In the U.S., this aircraft was known as the "Type 26", and given the ASCC reporting name "Magnet".

Production began in 1948. Total production of all Yak-15 and Yak-17 variants was 717, with the Yak-17UTI the most numerous of all variants of this early Soviet jet.

Variants

  • Yak-15U (Yak-15U-RD-10): Improved Yak-15 with tricycle undercarriage and drop tanks, became the prototype of the Yak-17 proper.
  • UTI Yak-17-RD10 (Yak-21T): (No relation to the earlier Yak-17-RD10) Two-seat trainer version of the Yak-15U with long greenhouse canopy over tandem cockpits and tricycle undercarriage.
  • Yak-17: Production fighters with tricycle undercarriage.
  • Yak-17UTI: Production two-seat Yak-17 trainers.
  • Yak-21T: (T - Tryokhkolyosnoye shassee - tricycle undercarriage) Alternative designation of the UTI Yak-17-RD10, no relation to earlier Yak-21

    • Operators

     Bulgaria

  • Bulgarian Air Force operated a small number of Yak-17UTI from 1951-1954.

    •  People's Republic of China

  • People's Liberation Army Air Force one Yak-17UTI received for MiG-9 pilot training. Imported 43 Yak-17 from 1950-1951. Late, PLAAF used Yak-17 training pilots of La-9 and La-11 to refit MiG-15.

    •  Czechoslovakia

  • Czechoslovak Air Force tested one Yak-17 aircraft.

    •  Poland

  • Polish Air Force operated three Yak-17 (transcribed as Jak-17) and 11 Yak-17UTI (known as Jak-17UTI or Jak-17W), from 1950 and were withdrawn by 1955.
  • Instytut Lotnictwa received one Jak-17 from Polish Air Force and used it with civilian markings SP-GLM for tests between 1957 and 1960.

    •  Romania

  • Romanian Air Force operated nine Yak-17UTIs as trainers for the Yak-23s from 1951 until 1958

    •  Soviet Union

  • Soviet Air Force operated Yak-17 aircraft from 1948 to early 1950s.

    • Specifications (Yak-17)

    Data from Early Soviet Jet Fighters

    General characteristics

  • Crew: 1
  • Length: 8.78 m (28 ft 10 in)
  • Wingspan: 9.2 m (30 ft 2 in)
  • Wing area: 14.85 m2 (159.8 sq ft)
  • Empty weight: 2,081 kg (4,588 lb)
  • Gross weight: 3,323 kg (7,326 lb)
  • Fuel capacity: 553 kg (1,219 lb) (internal), 884 kg (1,949 lb) (with drop tanks)
  • Powerplant: 1 × Klimov RD-10A axial-flow turbojet, 8.8 kN (1,980 lbf) thrust

    • Performance

  • Maximum speed: 744 km/h (462 mph; 402 kn) at 4,250 m (13,940 ft)
  • Range: 395 km (245 mi; 213 nmi)
  • Ferry range: 710 km (441 mi; 383 nmi) with drop tanks at altitude of 8,000 m (26,000 ft)
  • Service ceiling: 11,900 m (39,000 ft)
  • Rate of climb: 17.6 m/s (3,460 ft/min) at sea level
  • Time to altitude: 5,000 m (16,000 ft) in 6.5 minutes
  • Wing loading: 189 kg/m2 (39 lb/sq ft)
  • Thrust/weight: 0.31

    • Armament

  • Guns: 2 × 23 mm (0.91 in) Nudelman-Suranov NS-23 autocannon with 105 rounds per gun

    • References

    Yakovlev Yak-17 Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA