Amodel 1/72 Yak-50

Yakovlev Yak-50 was an early experimental turbojet interceptor aircraft designed in 1948 by the Yakovlev OKB in USSR. The aircraft was essentially a stretched version of the Yakovlev Yak-30 (1948), with a more powerful engine and greater sweep to the wings. The Yak-50 is perhaps most significant as the first Yakovlev aircraft equipped with the velosipednoye (bicycle) landing gear, a trademark of later Yakovlev designs. The Yak-50 designation was later reused for a propeller-driven aerobatic and trainer aircraft.

On February 21, 1949 a Sovmin order requested the Yakovlev OKB to design a lightweight, radar-equipped, all-weather and night interceptor capable of Mach 0.97 at 4,000 m (13,000 ft). The aircraft was to utilize the Klimov VK-1 engine which first appeared on Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 and MiG-17 fighters. This engine was itself a Soviet copy of the British Rolls-Royce Nene centrifugal turbojet initially known as the RD-45. The leading fighter OKBs each created a prototype to meet the requirement, which included the Lavochkin La-200, Mig I-320, Suchoi Su-15 (unrelated to the later aircraft with the same designation) and the Yak-50 (again, unrelated to the later aircraft). A major difference was that while Yakolev used one engine, the other design bureaus used two.

The aircraft first flew on 15 July 1949, with test pilot Anokhin achieving supersonic speed (Mach 1.03 at 10,000 m (33,000 ft)) in a shallow dive during one of the test flights.

Ultimately, none of the newly developed aircraft was selected, and an upgraded MiG-17 was eventually employed. Yakolev later used the velosipednoye landing gear in the Yak-140 fighter and the Yak-120, and later in the Yak-25 and Yak-28 where it proved highly successful.

The Yak-50 never received an ASCC name or USAF reporting number.

This is another interesting Soviet prototype aircraft from the folks at Amodel. As you know, Amodel kits are nicely molded, but are short run kits so have some differences from mainstream kits like those from Revell, Tamiya and so on. The biggest is the lack of positive locators for many of the parts, larger than normal molding seams and often the reliance on resin and photo etch for some parts.

This kit does not have any resin or p.e. and does have a nicely molded, though rather thick one-piece canopy. There is a tendency to use multiple pieces to make items where in other kits it can be done with a single molding. For instance, both of the gear wells are made up from separate walls so that uses five pieces each. Same goes for the seat wish is done with four sections. The cockpit tub also has a separate floor, rear bulkhead and side panels. To this is fitted the nose gear well. A control stick and instrument panel complete the cockpit. A decal is used for the instruments. There is no real detail on the sidewalls.

Since this is a bicycle landing gear kit, there should be no issue with nose weight, though the cautious will want to add some anyway. The nose gear is a single piece with the wheel molded in place. The main gear is a rather convoluted construct made a bit more difficult by the need to assemble many of the parts inside the already built up main gear well. wings are separate upper and lower sections for each side. I did notice that one of the wings did not have a very smooth mating surface and will probably need some dedicated sanding to flatten it out enough to get a good join. These, like the one-piece tailplanes simply butt fit to the fuselage. Outriggers are a single piece. The only real difference is between the -I and -II versions in that the -I had two shorter lower rear fuselage strakes. This will require the extant one to be removed in order to accommodate the earlier bits. 

Instructions are nicely done with crisp and clear instruction drawings. Painting information using Humbrol and generic color references is provided. Both markings options are in overall unpainted metal, varying only by Bort numbers and tail numbers. The decal sheet is nicely printed and provides the black area behind the cockpit. The area in front of it and the radome will need to be masked and painted by the builder.

If you are looking for something a bit different or have a fondness for prototype aircraft, then this is one you really should look into getting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakovlev_Yak-50_%281949%29

March 2013

Thanks to me for picking up this one.

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