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The Yakovlev Yak-19 (Russian: Як-19,
USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...
/ DOD designation Type 7) was a prototype Soviet fighter built in the late 1940s. It was the first Soviet aircraft to be equipped with an
afterburning An afterburner (or reheat in British English) is an additional combustion component used on some jet engines, mostly those on military aircraft, military supersonic aircraft. Its purpose is to increase thrust, usually for supersonic flight, ta ...
turbojet The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, and ...
, the Klimov RD-10F that was derived from the German
Jumo 004 The Junkers Jumo 004 was the world's first production turbojet engine in operational use, and the first successful axial compressor turbojet engine. Some 8,000 units were manufactured by Junkers in Germany late in World War II, powering the Mess ...
engine. Only two examples were built as it was rejected for service by the
Soviet Air Force The Soviet Air Forces (, VVS SSSR; literally "Military Air Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"; initialism VVS, sometimes referred to as the "Red Air Force") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Sovie ...
.


Development and description

In April 1946, the
Council of People's Commissars The Council of People's Commissars (CPC) (), commonly known as the ''Sovnarkom'' (), were the highest executive (government), executive authorities of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), the Soviet Union (USSR), and the Sovi ...
ordered several design bureaux (
OKB OKB () is a transliteration of the Russian initials for "" (), which translates to "Experimental Design Bureau." It could also mean or "Special Design Bureau" in english. During the Soviet era, OKBs were closed institutions working on design and ...
– ''Opytnoye Konstruktorskoye Buro''), included that of
Alexander Yakovlev Alexander Nikolayevich Yakovlev (; 2 December 1923 – 18 October 2005) was a Soviet and Russian politician, diplomat, and historian. A member of the Politburo and Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union throughout the 1980s ...
, to develop a single-seat jet fighter to be equipped with a single
Lyulka TR-1 The Lyulka TR-1 was a turbojet designed by Arkhip Lyulka and produced by his Lyulka design bureau. It was the first indigenous Soviet jet engine. Development In May 1944 Lyulka was ordered to begin development of a turbojet with a thrust of . H ...
turbojet engine. The aircraft should have a maximum speed of at
sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...
and a speed of at an altitude of . It should be able to climb to that altitude in 3.8 minutes or less and should have a maximum range of no less than . Yakovlev and his team were well aware that any derivative of their earlier
Yak-15 The Yakovlev Yak-15 (; NATO reporting name: Feather, USAF/ DOD designation Type 2) is a first-generation Soviet turbojet fighter developed by the Yakovlev design bureau (OKB) immediately after World War II. The main fuselage was that of Yako ...
and
Yak-17 The Yakovlev Yak-17 (; USAF/ DOD designation Type 16, NATO reporting name Feather) is 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-17 ...
fighters, then under development, could not reach the required speed because of their thick wings and chose to begin a "clean-slate" design. Preliminary work used the same "pod-and-boom" layout as had been used in the earlier Yakovlev designs, although the
cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, on the front part of an aircraft, spacecraft, or submersible, from which a pilot controls the vehicle. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the controls th ...
was located in front of the engine. The TR-1 engine was plagued by delays and Yakovlev devoted most of his efforts to designs that used the RD-10. By late June, Yakovlev had decided to use a more aerodynamically efficient "tubular" layout with the engine buried in the center of the
fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...
. After it became clear that neither the TR-1, nor the imported British
Rolls-Royce Nene The Rolls-Royce RB.41 Nene is a 1940s British centrifugal compressor turbojet engine. The Nene was a complete redesign, rather than a scaled-up Rolls-Royce Derwent,"Rolls-Royce Aero Engines" Bill Gunston, Patrick Stephens Limited 1989, , p.111 ...
or
Rolls-Royce Derwent The Rolls-Royce RB.37 Derwent is a 1940s British centrifugal compressor turbojet engine, the second Rolls-Royce jet engine to enter production. It was an improved version of the Rolls-Royce Welland, which itself was a renamed version of Fran ...
engines would be available to power the prototypes, Yakovlev settled on the newly available afterburning version of the RD-10. The first prototype was ordered to a very demanding schedule and was completed on 29 November 1946. The Yak-19 had a flattened oval-shaped, metal
semi-monocoque The term semi-monocoque or semimonocoque refers to a stressed shell structure that is similar to a true monocoque, but which derives at least some of its strength from conventional reinforcement. Semi-monocoque construction is used for, among o ...
fuselage with the single-seat cockpit and its teardrop-shaped
canopy Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an a ...
positioned just forward of the
axial-flow An axial compressor is a gas compressor that can continuously pressurize gases. It is a rotating, airfoil-based compressor in which the gas or working fluid principally flows parallel to the axis of rotation, or axially. This differs from other ...
RD-10F turbojet engine. Its
air intake An intake (also inlet) is an opening, structure or system through which a fluid is admitted to a space or machine as a consequence of a pressure differential between the outside and the inside. The pressure difference may be generated on the ins ...
was in the nose and the afterburner was positioned at the rear of the fuselage, just below the tail structure. Fitted with
tricycle landing gear Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', that is arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has one or more nose wheels in a single front undercarriage and two or more main wheels slightly aft of th ...
, the main landing gear retracted inwards into the fuselage while the nose gear retracted forwards. The laminar-flow, two- spar, straight wing was mounted in the middle of the fuselage. It was equipped with modified
Fowler flap A flap is a high-lift device used to reduce the stalling speed of an aircraft wing at a given weight. Flaps are usually mounted on the wing trailing edges of a fixed-wing aircraft. Flaps are used to reduce the take-off distance and the landin ...
s and
Frise aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in Flight dynamics, roll (or ...
s. The
rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (usually air or water). On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw ...
was split into two sections by the
horizontal stabilizer A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabilizer, is a small lifting surface located on the tail ( empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplan ...
s; the upper portion was fabric-covered while the lower half was metal-skinned. The pilot was protected by a bulletproof windscreen, a forward armor plate and an armored seat back. In addition, he was provided with an
ejection seat In aircraft, an ejection seat or ejector seat is a system designed to rescue the aircraft pilot, pilot or other aircrew, crew of an aircraft (usually military) in an emergency. In most designs, the seat is propelled out of the aircraft by an exp ...
. The Yak-19 was equipped with four fuel tanks in the fuselage that had a total capacity of of fuel. It was armed with two
Nudelman-Suranov NS-23 The NS-23 was a aircraft cannon designed by A. E. Nudelman, A. Suranov, G. Zhirnykh, V. Nemenov, S. Lunin, and M. Bundin during World War II as a replacement for the Volkov-Yartsev VYa-23 cannon. It entered service in 1944. The NS-23 round was ...
autocannon An autocannon, automatic cannon or machine cannon is a automatic firearm, fully automatic gun that is capable of rapid-firing large-caliber ( or more) armour-piercing, explosive or incendiary ammunition, incendiary shell (projectile), shells, ...
, each with 70 rounds.


Testing

The day after the first prototype was completed, it was trucked to
Khodynka Field Khodynka Field (, ''Khodynskoye pole'') is a large open space in the north-west of Moscow, at the beginning of the present day Leningradsky Prospect. It takes its name from the small Khodynka River which used to cross the neighbourhood. The fie ...
to begin
taxiing Taxiing (rarely spelled taxying) is the movement of an aircraft on the ground, under its own power, in contrast to towing or pushback (aviation), pushback where the aircraft is moved by a tug. The aircraft usually moves on wheels, but the term ...
trials. On 12 December it caught fire when a defective fuel
gasket Some seals and gaskets A gasket is a mechanical seal which fills the space between two or more mating surfaces, generally to prevent leakage from or into the joined objects while under compression. It is a deformable material that is used to c ...
blew out; the repairs took a
fortnight A fortnight is a unit of time equal to 14 days (two weeks). The word derives from the Old English term , meaning "" (or "fourteen days", since the Anglo-Saxons counted by nights). Astronomy and tides In astronomy, a ''lunar fortnight'' is hal ...
. Immediately before its
maiden flight The maiden flight, also known as first flight, of an aircraft is the first occasion on which it leaves the ground under its own power. The same term is also used for the first launch of rockets. In the early days of aviation it could be dange ...
, a pair of experimental 23 mm Shpitalny Sh-3 autocannon replaced the NS-23s. It first flew on 8 January 1947 with Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Ivanov, at the controls, although he was not the primary
test pilot A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testin ...
. The Yak-19 was grounded from 2 March to 18 May as it awaited a new engine. On 21 May, the afterburner was tested in flight for the first time. While the fighter was the first Soviet aircraft to be equipped with an afterburner, it was not the first one to use one in flight as the Aircraft 156 had done so over a month earlier. The second prototype first flew on 6 June and was almost identical with the first prototype. Changes included five degrees of dihedral to the horizontal stabilizer, a slightly revised
vertical stabilizer A vertical stabilizer or tail fin is the static part of the vertical tail of an aircraft. The term is commonly applied to the assembly of both this fixed surface and one or more movable rudders hinged to it. Their role is to provide control, sta ...
and plumbing for a pair of
drop tank In aviation, a drop tank (external tank, wing tank or belly tank) is used to describe auxiliary fuel tanks externally carried by aircraft. A drop tank is expendable and often capable of being jettisoned. External tanks are commonplace on modern ...
s underneath the wingtips. This increased the fighter's total fuel load to . During the manufacturer's flight tests, the Yak-19 became the first Soviet aircraft to exceed 900 km/h.
Major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...
Sergei Anokhin was the primary test pilot and reported that the aircraft had pleasant and predictable flying characteristics and presented no difficulties for the average pilot. Before the testing was completed, Anokhin led the jets participating in the
flypast ''FlyPast'' is an aircraft magazine, published monthly, edited by Tom Allett, Steve Beebee and Jamie Ewan. History and profile The magazine started as a bi-monthly edition in May/June 1981 and its first editor was the late Mike Twite. It is ow ...
at Tushino Airfield on 3 August. State acceptance tests began on 17 October, using the second prototype, and finished on 30 January 1948. The group of military test pilots concluded that the afterburner was unreliable and the aircraft was difficult to control in
roll Roll may refer to: Physics and engineering * Rolling, a motion of two objects with respect to each-other such that the two stay in contact without sliding * Roll angle (or roll rotation), one of the 3 angular degrees of freedom of any stiff bo ...
. Other complaints were focused on the cockpit; it was deemed was too small and lacked sufficient armor and heating or ventilation. They decided that the Yak-19 could not be recommended for service. Rather than modify the aircraft to address these problems, Yakovlev chose to cancel it entirely in favor of designs using the more-powerful () Rolls-Royce Derwent-derived Klimov RD-500, like his
Yak-23 The Yakovlev Yak-23 (; USAF/DoD reporting name Type 28, NATO reporting name Flora) is an early Soviet jet fighter with a straight wing. It was developed from the Yak-17 in the late 1940s and used a reverse-engineered copy of a British engine. It ...
and
Yak-25 The Yakovlev Yak-25 ( NATO designation Flashlight-A/Mandrake) is a swept wing, turbojet-powered interceptor and reconnaissance aircraft built by Yakovlev and used by the Soviet Union. Design and development The Yak-25 originated from a need f ...
fighters then under development.Gordon & Kommissarov, pp. 227–29


Specifications (Yak-19)


See also


Notes


Bibliography

* Gordon, Yefim & Kommissarov, Dmitry. ''Early Soviet Jet Fighters''. Manchester, UK: Hikoki Publications, 2014. .


Further reading

* Gordon, Yefim, Kommissarov, Dmitry & Komissariov, Sergey. ''OKB Yakovlev: A History of the Design Bureau and Its Aircraft''. Hinkley, England: Midland, 2005. * Green, William & Swanborough, Gordon. ''The Complete Book of Fighters''. New York: Smithmark, 1994. * Gunston, Bill. ''The Osprey Encyclopedia of Russian Aircraft 1875–1995''. London: Osprey, 1995. * Gunston, Bill & Gordon, Yefim. ''Yakovlev Aircraft Since 1924''. London: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1997.


External links


Russian Aviation Museum
{{aviation.ru 1940s Soviet fighter aircraft Yak-019 Single-engined jet aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1947