SCALE AIRCRAFT MODELLING NOV 98 WW2 YAKOLEV YAK-1_AN-2_A-10A_BRITISH
MIDLAND
VOLUME 20 NUMBER
9 NOVEMBER 1998
FEATURED
ARTICLES INCLUDE:
AIRCRAFT IN
DETAIL: ANTONOV AN-2 COLT RUSSIAN BIPLANE TRANSPORT (POLISH AIR FORCE, CZECH,
HUNGARY)
ANTONOV AN-2
COLT CAMOUFLAGE AND MARKINGS (6 FULL PAGES OF COLOR PROFILES)
CENTERFOLD FULL
PAGE SCALE PLANS 1:72 – WARPAINT WW2 RUSSIAN RED AIR FORCE VVS YAKOLEV YAK-1
WW2 SOVIET FIGHTER
INSIDE STORY:
USAF REPUBLIC FAIRCHIL A-10A THUNDERBOLT II WARTHOG TFW
AIRLINE
LIVERIES: BRITISH MIDLAND
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional Information from Internet Encyclopedia
The Antonov
An-2 (Russian nickname: "Annushka" or "Annie"; "kukuruznik"
- corn crop duster) is a Soviet mass-produced single-engine biplane
utility/agricultural aircraft designed and manufactured by the Antonov Design
Bureau (now State Company) since 1946. (USAF/DoD reporting name Type 22, NATO
reporting name Colt.
The An-2 is
used as a light utility transport, parachute drop aircraft, agricultural work
and many other tasks suited to this large slow-flying biplane. Its slow flight
and good short field performance make it suited for short, unimproved fields,
and some specialized variants have also been built for cold weather and other
extreme environments. The Guinness Book of World Records states that the
45-year production run for the An-2 was for a time the longest ever for any
aircraft — and challenging the well over two decades-long run of the much
lighter, late-1920s origin Polikarpov Po-2 biplane it was intended to replace —
but the An-2's production duration run record was itself recently exceeded by
the four-turboprop-engined, 1954-origin Lockheed C-130 Hercules military
transport.
The An-2 was
designed as a utility aircraft for use in forestry and agriculture. However,
the basic airframe is highly adaptable and numerous variants have been
developed. These include hopper-equipped versions for crop-dusting, scientific
versions for atmospheric sampling, water-bombers for fighting forest-fires,
flying ambulances, float-equipped seaplane versions and lightly armed combat
versions for dropping paratroops. The most common version is the An-2T
12-seater passenger aircraft. All versions (other than the An-3) are powered by
a 750 kW (1,010 hp) nine-cylinder Shvetsov ASh-62 radial engine,
which was developed from the Wright R-1820. It uses 43 gallons of avgas per
hour.
The An-2 was
used by combat services in the Korean War. During the 1960s an An-2 attempting
to engage South Vietnamese naval units was shot down by an F-4 Phantom II under
the control of an Air Intercept Controller (AIC) on the USS Long Beach.
On 12 January
1968, a clandestine TACAN site (call sign: Lima Site 85/Phou Pha Ti) installed
by the United States Air Force in Northern Laos for directing USAF warplanes
flying from Thailand to Vietnam was attacked by two North Vietnamese An-2s
using machine guns fired from the cabin, rockets and hand thrown grenades. A
third An-2 orbited overhead. An Air America Bell UH-1B, XW-PHF, resupplying the
site chased the two attacking aircraft. By using an AK-47 the American crew
(Ted Moore Captain, Glen Wood kicker) succeeded in shooting down one of the
An-2s while the second aircraft was forced down by combined ground and air fire
and crashed into a mountain. The surviving Antonov returned to its home base,
Gia Lam, near Hanoi.
During the
Croatian War of Independence in 1991, a few old Antonov An-2 biplanes used for
crop-spraying were converted by the Croatian Air Force to drop makeshift boiler
bombs and were used in supply missions to the town of Vukovar and other
besieged parts of Croatia. The chief advantage for the An-2 was that they could
take off and land in small or improvised airstrips. They were also used to drop
supplies by parachute on isolated garrisons. At least one was shot down on 2
December 1991 over Vinkovci, eastern Slavonia, by Serbian SAM missiles,
purportedly SA-6s. Following the shootdown, the flights over Serbian lines
ceased, due to the presence of TV guided SA-6. The previous radar guided AA
systems were avoided by keeping the airplane's speed below 140 km/h, the
speed of objects that radars were programmed to erase from the screen.
In addition to
Aeroflot, the Soviet Air Force and other Eastern Bloc military forces including
Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF), dozens of nations and airlines have employed
the An-2 in civil and military roles. In recent years, it has also gained
popularity in the USA and Canada as a bushplane.
The North
Korean Special Operation Force is known to use the An-2 to facilitate the
infiltration of paratroopers.
As of 2015, there were
thousands of An-2 still in operation around the world, including over 1,500 in
Russia, 294 in Kazakhstan and 54 in Ukraine. Because of their reliability and
robustness, several An-2 are also used in scheduled passenger service between
airstrips in Western countries with one example being the service between the
North-Sea islands of Sylt and Föhr.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional Information from Internet Encyclopedia
The Yakovlev Yak-1 was a World War II Soviet fighter aircraft. Produced
from early 1940, it was a single-seat monoplane with a composite structure and
wooden wings.
The Yak-1 was extremely manoeuvrable, fast and well-armed, and, just as
importantly, it was easy to maintain and reliable. It formed an excellent basis
for subsequent developments from the Yakovlev bureau. In fact, it was the
founder of a family of aircraft, with some 37,000 being built.
Prior to World War II Yakovlev was best known for building light sports
aircraft, his Yak-4 light bomber impressed the Soviet government enough to
order the OKB to design a new fighter with a Klimov M-106 V-12 liquid-cooled
engine. Formal specifications released on 29 July 1939, called for two
prototypes - I-26-1 with a top speed of 620 km/h (385 mph) at 6,000 m (16,685
ft), combat range of 600 km (375 mi), a climb to 10,000 m (32,808 ft) of under
11 minutes, and armament of 2 × 7.62 mm ShKAS machine guns and 1 × 12.7 mm (0.5
in) Berezin BS heavy machine gun, and I-26-2 with a turbocharged M-106 engine
with a top speed of 650 km/h (404 mph) at 10,000 m (32,808 ft) and armament of
2 × 7.62 mm (.3 in) ShKAS machine guns. The design took full advantage of
Yakovlev OKB's experience with sports aircraft and promised agility as well as
high top speed. Since the M-106 was delayed, the design was changed to
incorporate the Klimov M-105P V-12 engine, with a 20 mm (.8 in) ShVAK cannon in
the "vee" of the engine block.
In the autumn of 1942 the Yak-1B appeared with the more powerful M-105P
engine and a single 12,7 mm UBS machine gun instead of the two ShKAS. Although
this did not increase the total weight of fire by much, the UBS machine-gun was
much more effective than the two 7,62 mm ShKAS. Moreover, the simple VV ring
sight replaced the PBP gun-sight, because of the very poor quality of the
lenses of the latter. The Yak-1 had a light tail and it was easy to tip over
and to hit the ground with the propeller. Often technicians had to keep the
tail down and that could lead to accidents, with aircraft taking off with
technicians still on the rear fuselage. Nonetheless, the Yak-1 was well liked
by its pilots. For Soviet pilot Nikolai G. Golodnikov, overall, in its tactical
and technical characteristic, the Yak-1B was equal to the Messerschmitt Bf
109G. French Normandie-Niemen squadron selected the primitive model Yak-1M
(that had a cut-down fuselage to allow all-round vision) when it was formed, in
March 1943. Twenty-four of these aircraft were sent to the elite all-female 586
IAP whose pilots included the world's only female aces: Katya Budanova, with
11, and Lydia Litvyak (11 plus three shared). Litvyak, the most famous fighter
pilot woman of all times, flew Yak-1 “Yellow 44”, with aerial mast, at first in
296.IAP and then with 73.Gv.IAP, until her death in combat, on 1 August 1943.
Another famous ace who flew the Yak-1 was Mikhail Baranov, who scored all his
24 victories on it, including five on a day (four Bf 109s and one Ju 87, on 6
August 1942). Yak-1s were also the first type operated by the 1 Pu³k Lotnictwa
Myœliwskiego "Warszawa" ("1st Polish Fighter Regiment
'Warsaw'").
I-26 (a.k.a. Ya-26) - The first prototype of the Yak-1 and progenitor
of all Yakovlev's piston-engined fighters of World War II. Of mixed steel tube
and wood construction the lightweight I-26 displayed promising performance and
was produced as the Yak-1.
Yak-1 - Single-seat fighter aircraft. Initial production version.
Yak-1b - ("b" was an unofficial designation; after October
1942, all Yak-1s were built to this standard). New bubble canopy with lowered
rear fuselage, increased armor, ShKAS machine guns replaced with a single 12.7
mm (0.5 in) Berezin UBS, electrical and pneumatic firing of the weapons instead
of the mechanical system, new control stick based on the Messerschmitt Bf 109
design, new gunsight, airtight fuselage, retractable tailwheel, improved engine
cooling, Klimov M-105PF engine with better low-altitude performance. The first
flight (aircraft No.3560) took place in June 1942, with aircraft entering
production in August. A total of 4,188 were built.
