Talk:Yakovlev Yak-24

Contradictory dates of specification and first flight

The process was presumably for the SU government to issue the specification first, and only then could Yakolev begin detailed design and construction of the prototype to meet the specification. The dates given for these two events are in this paragraph:

In late summer 1952, the Soviet Union issued two design specifications for helicopters, with the intent of catching up to the United States in post-World War II helicopter development. The design for the medium-sized helicopter which could transport 12 people was issued to the Mil Design Bureau, whereas the design for a larger version capable of transporting 24 people was given to the Yakovlev Design Bureau under Alexander Yakovlev, which had not had any previous design experience with helicopters prior to this project. Yakovlev made two prototypes for flight testing, and two more for static and dynamic ground tests. The first prototype was flown on 3 July 1952.

This "summer" is presumably the northern hemisphere summer, which is June July August. The time "late summer" is vague but is simply interpreted as any time after mid-summer, or after 15 July 1952. It does not seem possible for the prototype to be flying 2 weeks before the specifications for it were even issued. The flight happened later or the specs were issued earlier or both.

As the alleged motivation was "catching up to the USA" and the similar-looking Piasecki H-21 tandem rotor helicopter had first flown in the USA in April 1952, I suggest "late spring" would be in theory a more logical timeframe for the specifications to be issued, or if the issuance date is known with greater certainty then the first flight must have occurred much later than 3 July. Another option is that the specifications were co-developed with the prototype, such that the government was not officially asking for anything that had not already been basically proven, but that would be abnormal for the 1950s and the article does not say that design process was used. Does anyone know of a source which can resolve this contradiction in dates? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Andrew McRae 78 (talk • contribs) 05:19, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

All the sources I've looked at (i.e. Stroud, Gunston as already used as references, Gunston & Gordon's Yakovlev Aircraft since 1924 and Gordon, Komissarov and Komissarov's OKB Yakovlev) say that the requirement dated from the Autumn of 1951 (more precisely in September) following a meeting with Stalin - Mil were assigned a single-engined transport helicopter which became the Mil Mi-4 and Yakovlev a helicopter of twice the capacity, with both aircraft to be flying within a year.Nigel Ish (talk) 17:14, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

Movie appearance

A Yak-24 appears briefly in the 1960 film Карьера Димы Горина (Dima Gorin's Career) at about the 1:09 mark, lifting a ZIL truck out of trouble. Santamoly (talk) 07:12, 18 May 2020 (UTC)