science

Yakovlev Yak-14

Yakovlev Yak-14 is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Yakovlev Yak-14 rather than just read about it. In short: The Yakovlev Yak-14 (Russian: Яковлев Як-14; NATO reporting name: Crow or Mare) was the largest assault glider ever to enter service with the Soviet Air Force. It was introduced in 1949, at a time when other air forces were abandoning the glider concept.

Key takeaways

Yakovlev Yak-14 belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
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Connect Yakovlev Yak-14 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Yakovlev Yak-14 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Yakovlev Yak-14 (Russian: Яковлев Як-14; NATO reporting name: Crow or Mare) was the largest assault glider ever to enter service with the Soviet Air Force. It was introduced in 1949, at a time when other air forces were abandoning the glider concept. In 1950 a Yak-14 became the first glider to fly over the North Pole.

Design and development During World War II, the Soviet Union operated only light gliders like the Gribovsky G-11, Antonov A-7 and Kolesnikov-Tsybin KC-20 which were unable to transport vehicles, light tanks or artillery. Only after the war were Soviet designers ordered to develop medium gliders capable of carrying heavy or bulky loads. In 1948 the Soviet Air Forces issued a specification for a large assault glider needed by the VDV (Vozdushnodesantnyye Voyska – airborne troops) which was to be capable of carrying a payload of 3,500 kilograms (7,700 lb), including loads like an anti-tank or field gun with its crew and associated tow vehicle, or up to 35 troops. The Yakovlev design bureau was instructed to design an aircraft to meet this requirement, despite its relative inexperience in the design of such large aircraft. Yakovlev's design, the Yak-14 was a high-wing monoplane. It had a rectangular section fuselage with a steel-tube and dural structure with a fabric covering. To aid loading and unloading of cargo, the aircraft's nose swung to the right with the tail section pivoting to the left. The two pilots sat side by side in an enclosed cockpit above the left side of the fuselage. They were provided with a display that used a transmitter in the towing aircraft to show the relative positions of the two aircraft when flying in cloud. The wings were made of dural and fabric and were braced to the fuselage by a single strut on each side. Large slotted trailing-edge flaps were fitted to the wings, while the aircraft was fitted with a fixed nosewheel undercarriage which could be made to "kneel" by releasing air from the pneumatic shock struts of the undercarriage, lowering the fuselage for ease of unloading or to make short landings on belly-mounted skids.

Testing The first prototype made its maiden flight in June 1948 from Medvyezhe Ozero, near Omsk. Official testing resulted in a number of changes to the design, with a large dorsal fin being fitted, and spoilers being added to reduce landing runs, while the payload of the glider was increased to allow an ASU-57 assault gun to be carried. As such the Yak-14 passed its acceptance trials from August to September 1949, with the glider entering mass production later that year. While some Yak-14s were constructed at Chkalovsk, the majority were produced at Rostov-on-Don. Total production was 413 series gliders.

Operational history The Yak-14 filled an important role in Soviet service in the 1950s, being the only way of carrying large loads by air to remote parts of the Soviet Union without having to disassemble the loads. The usual tug was the Ilyushin Il-12. One Yak-14 was flown to the North Pole in 1950, while another example of the glider's versatility took place in March 1954, when four Yak-14s made a long-distance flight to an ice station on an ice floe drifting on the Arctic Ocean, with the supplies delivered including a large bulldozer. The gliders flew from Tula on March 10, with several stops at Omsk, Krasnoyarsk and the Schmidt Cape, on Sakhalin island in the Far East, before reaching SP-4 in early April during a heavy freeze.

A few were delivered to Czechoslovakia in the early 1950s which used them under the designation NK-14. Soviet Air Force transport gliders were gradually withdrawn from service with the arrival of turboprop transports like the Antonov An-24 and Antonov An-12, which entered service in the late 1950s.

Variants Yak-14 Basic production variant. Yak-14M Increased payload version built from 1951. NK-14 (Nákladní kluzák – cargo glider) Yak-14s delivered to Czechoslovakia

Operators Czechoslovakia Czechoslovak Air Force Soviet Union Soviet Air Force

Specifications (Yak-14)

Data from Yakovlev Aircraft since 1924General characteristics Crew: two Length: 18.44 m (60 ft 6 in) Wingspan: 26.17 m (85 ft 10 in) Wing area: 83.35 m2 (897.2 sq ft) Empty weight: 3,082 kg (6,795 lb) Gross weight: 6,750 kg (14,881 lb) Performance

Maximum speed: 300 km/h (190 mph, 160 kn) (maximum towing speed) Cruise speed: 145 km/h (90 mph, 78 kn) (optimum gliding speed)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Yakovlev Yak-14

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Yakovlev Yak-14 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Yakovlev Yak-14 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Yakovlev Yak-14 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Yakovlev Yak-14

In research: Yakovlev Yak-14 appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Yakovlev Yak-14 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Yakovlev Yak-14 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1940s Soviet military transport aircraft, 1940s military gliders, Aircraft first flown in 1948, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Yakovlev Yak-14 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Yakovlev Yak-14 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Yakovlev Yak-14 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Yakovlev Yak-14 in simple terms?

Why does Yakovlev Yak-14 matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Yakovlev Yak-14?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Yakovlev Yak-14.