Monday, 12 December 2011

YAK-15 'Feather'

The YAK-15 is now complete and has begun it's glittering career as a dust gatherer on a shelf.  It was a kit I build for the sake of doing so as I think it is an interesting aeroplane.  One of the earlier postwar (1946) jet aircraft, it is basically a YAK-3 airframe with the piston engine replaced with a copy of a Junkers Jumo 004 jet engine.  Although this sounds (and looks) like a bit of a lash-up, given that the YAK-3 was a pretty good aircraft and that the 004 was the engine used in the Me-262 it could all have been a lot worse.
I used one of the two sets of numbers which came with the kit, but binned the red stars (the printing was somewhat vague...) and replaced them with some I had in stock.
280 YAK-15 were built and it's main use was to facilitate pilot conversion training - a task no doubt eased by the familiar layout  and landing gear.
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8 comments:

  1. Robert (Bob) Cordery12 December 2011 at 08:48

    Tim,

    A very nice model of a querky aircraft. One wonders how it might have fared against British or US fighters had the Cold War turned hot in the late 1940s.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  2. Paul12 December 2011 at 10:22

    Top class work Tim! I like the Saab 29 which looks similar, but seems much more grunty.

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  3. Tim Gow12 December 2011 at 12:48

    Bob
    Hmm... There's a game in there somewhere. Oh no!

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  4. Tim Gow12 December 2011 at 12:53

    Paul
    The Saab 29 appeared a few years later and looks a lot chunkier. But as a Saab (car!) driver I may be biased. Interestingly, apart from the YAK-15, the only other jet converted from a prop-driven aircraft to see service was the Saab 21R of 1947.

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  5. Don M12 December 2011 at 14:55

    Very Nice work Tim.

    Not too long ago I watched an interesting tv show on how US intelligence stole one of these from Bulgaria and brought it back put it together tested it, disassembled it, then returned it!

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  6. Tim Gow12 December 2011 at 15:14

    Don M
    Mine wasn't stolen in Bulgaria but (somewhat less glamorously) bought in Telford. I hope the US intel guys had an easier job getting the canopy to fit!

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  7. Tim Gow12 December 2011 at 22:16

    West 1871
    Thanks Rich - I can assure you it looks a lot better in the photos than in reality!

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  8. Conrad Kinch19 December 2011 at 06:32

    It just occurred to me Tim, what do you do with all these planes?

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