The Jak 55 as a 1:4 scale model

Since new—and, above all, more powerful—engines for model airplanes have been appearing on the market one after another lately, it was only a matter of time before this trend would spill over into scale model building as well. The 1:4 scale or larger (quarter-scale) is gaining more and more followers among model airplane enthusiasts. I, too, have noticed for some time now that when I look at a multi-view drawing of any airplane, I immediately divide the wingspan by 4 to answer the question: “How big will this thing be?” That’s exactly what happened shortly before Christmas 1982, when I came across a rather sparse three-view drawing of the Yak-55.

The Yak-55 is the latest Russian model, designed exclusively for aerobatics and flown for the first time at the World Championships last year. With a wingspan of 8.20 m and an overall length of 7.48 m, this translates to a wingspan of 2.05 m and a length of 1.87 m for a 1:4 scale model. Since I consider the proportions of the wings, the lever arms—and also the straight contours—of this aircraft to be virtually ideal for an Okro model, I couldn’t resist immediately sketching a rough 1:40 scale sketch by hand. The following evening—it was a Thursday, and thus the obligatory weekly get-together among the members of the Simprop squadron—I tossed the sketch onto the regulars’ table as bait, and lo and behold, the bait was taken.

While I was taking part in a leisurely game of Jass, I heard casual remarks from the regulars’ table such as: “Wings and fuselage made of Styrofoam, fiberglass cowling, Webra Bully profile, symmetrical of course—it actually looks like a slurry tanker

tank—three of them for formation flying.” I let things take their course, feigning disinterest, and wasn’t surprised when, after only a short time, three fuselage shells were already standing there. In the meantime, Hans Blank, Beat Gohl, and Barny Lüscher have completed their Jak models and flown them in, and they all agree: “This thing flies fantastically!”

I had actually intended to include a detailed build guide for our Jak 55 at the end of this report; but since I’ve just heard that a kit for this model from Bauer will be coming onto the market soon, there’s no need for that.