Yakovlev Yak-40
The Yakovlev Yak -40 (Russian Яковлев Як -40, NATO reporting name Codling ) is a short- range airliner of Soviet production. It was designed in the early 1960 's, to take over the feeder services of Lisunow Li -2, one built in the Soviet Union license version of the DC-3.
The Yak- 40 is a cantilever low-wing monoplane with retractable nose gear and rear-mounted engines. You can carry a two-to three -man crew and up to 32 passengers.
To start from unpaved airfields such as grass airfields and Behelfspisten from, the new type low -loaded wings and the safety of three was held only two engines.
The retractable passenger stairs at the rear and the on-board auxiliary power unit for air conditioning the cabin and to start the three engines make the Yak- 40 independently of ground equipment at airports.
History
About a year after the beginning of the development of the first flight of the first of the five prototypes was held by Arseny Kolosov on 21 October 1966. The first public presentation took place in Domodedovo on July 8, 1967. On 30 September 1968 the Yak- 40 was introduced into service of Aeroflot.
Although the model was much too weak motorized, it has been widely exported. It even get sales in the West. The biggest " West customer ", the German general was Air, the Yak- 40 became one of the most built passenger aircraft of the Soviet Union. Until the expiry of the production in 1976 over 1000 Yak- 40 were built. It is still used in some Central Asian airlines of the former Soviet Union and in some air forces of the former Eastern Bloc.
Although the production is already expired, Yakovlev, together with skorost to the conversion to Yak- 40TL. The three Ivchenko engines are replaced by two turbofan engines from the manufacturer Textron Lycoming (LF 507 -1N per 31.14 kN thrust), which allow a higher cruise speed and also have better performance and significantly lower operating costs.