Yakovlev Yak-18
The Cosmonaut’s First Trainer

The post-war Soviet primary trainer that taught Yuri Gagarin to fly, equipped flying schools from Warsaw to Beijing, flew night raids in Korea and grew into a world-championship aerobatic mount.

1946First flight

6,000+Aircraft built (all variants)

20+Air forces

160–300 hpRadial power, early to late

Photo: Jakub Hałun / CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

RolePrimary trainer, aerobatic aircraft, night harasser in KoreaEra1946 to 1970s; civil and warbird use todayEngineShvetsov M-11FR 5-cylinder radial; Ivchenko AI-14R 9-cylinder radial (Yak-18A)OriginUSSR / China · Yakovlev, NanchangStatusRetiredWant to fly a real military jet?

The Story

The Yak-18: how a modest radial trainer schooled a generation of Eastern Bloc pilots

In May 1945, days after the war in Europe ended, Aleksandr Yakovlev’s bureau began work on a two-seat primary trainer to replace the open-cockpit UT-2 it had built before the war. The result was a neat, low-wing monoplane with a tandem enclosed cockpit, retractable main wheels and a fixed tailwheel, powered by a 160 hp Shvetsov M-11FR five-cylinder radial, a development of the engine that drove the Po-2. Test pilot G. S. Klimushkin flew the prototype on 6 May 1946. Air force state trials judged it a clear improvement on the UT-2 in every respect, and the Yak-18 was approved for service in March 1947. NATO later called it Max. It was not fast or powerful, but it was rugged, simple to fix and forgiving of the mistakes cadets were bound to make.

Production spread across three Soviet factories, at Leningrad, Kharkiv and Arsenyev in the Far East, and the Yak-18 became the first aircraft that tens of thousands of Soviet airmen ever flew solo, in air force schools and in the paramilitary DOSAAF flying clubs. One of them, at the Saratov aero club in 1955, was a foundry student named Yuri Gagarin, who made his first solo flight on the type six years before he became the first human in space. The aircraft went to every Warsaw Pact air force and to China, North Korea, Egypt, Iraq, Syria and others. China built 379 under licence at Nanchang as the CJ-5 before designing its own successor, the CJ-6.

The basic design proved remarkably elastic. The Yak-18U of 1954 moved to a tricycle undercarriage to prepare students for nosewheel jets such as the MiG-15, and the Yak-18A of 1957 added a nine-cylinder Ivchenko AI-14R radial of about 260 hp. Single-seat Yak-18P, PM and PS aerobatic versions followed, and in 1966 the Soviet team won the world aerobatic championship title flying the PM. The type also had a stranger career: in Korea, North Korean crews hung small bombs under Yak-18s and flew them by night over UN lines. They were slow enough to slip under the radar-directed defences, and in June 1953 a handful of them set a vast fuel dump ablaze near Inchon. Today a few dozen originals survive, a handful of them still airworthy in the United States, Europe and China.

Five cylinders, two seats and a fixed tailwheel: the first rung of the ladder that led to space.Saratov, 1955 — Gagarin’s first solo

01The Yak-18’s war in Korea: trainers as night bombers

North Korea received Yak-18s as trainers, but by 1952 and 1953 its air force was flying them, together with Po-2 biplanes, on low-level night harassment raids against UN positions. The aircraft were fitted with bomb racks on the wing centre section and flew slowly enough, and low enough, to slip past radar-directed jet night fighters that were simply too fast to stay behind them. UN troops gave the night raiders names such as Washing Machine Charlie and Bed Check Charlie, after the clattering engines that arrived just as men tried to sleep.

The raids were mostly a nuisance, but not always. In June 1953, in the final weeks of the war, a small formation of four or five Yak-18s is credited with setting fire to a fuel dump near Inchon holding some 5.5 million US gallons. The response was to borrow the right tool from the US Navy: piston-engined, radar-equipped F4U-5N Corsairs that could fly as slowly as their quarry. On 29 June 1953 Lieutenant Guy Bordelon of VC-3, flying from land bases after detachment from USS Princeton, shot down two Yak-18s at night. He went on to claim three Lavochkin fighters within three weeks and became the US Navy’s only ace of the Korean War, every victory scored in darkness.

Design & Engineering

What makes the Yak-18 special

A small radial, honestly used

The original Yak-18 used the Shvetsov M-11FR, a five-cylinder air-cooled radial of about 160 hp descended from the engine of the Po-2. It was low on power but extremely tolerant: easy to start in a Russian winter, simple to overhaul at a club airfield and with no cooling system to fail. The penalty was modest performance, around 250 km/h at best, which was entirely acceptable for teaching basic handling, circuits and gentle aerobatics.

Retractable wheels from day one

Unlike the fixed-gear UT-2 it replaced, the Yak-18 had main wheels that retracted rearwards into the wing, leaving part of each tyre exposed so that a wheels-up landing did limited harm. Cadets therefore learnt undercarriage drills, propeller pitch and flap management on their very first aircraft, habits that carried straight into fighters. The later Yak-18U and Yak-18A moved to a tricycle layout, matching the nosewheel jets students would meet next.

From trainer to aerobatic champion

The sturdy airframe invited competition flying. Yakovlev produced single-seat aerobatic variants, the Yak-18P, PM and PS, with the cockpit moved aft and the more powerful AI-14 family of radials. The PM, first flown in December 1965, was built for top-level sport pilots, and in 1966 the Soviet team took the title at the fourth World Aerobatic Championships. The line led on to the dedicated Yak-50 and Yak-52.

02The Yak-18’s family tree: from M-11 to AI-14

Yak-18 (1946): two-seat primary trainer, M-11FR of 160 hp, tailwheel undercarriage with retractable main legs. Built in thousands until 1956.
Yak-18U (1954): tricycle undercarriage to prepare cadets for jets; about 960 built from 1955.
Yak-18A (1957): cleaned-up airframe, nine-cylinder Ivchenko AI-14R of about 260 hp, larger fuel capacity. The principal late-production version.
Yak-18P / PM / PS: single-seat aerobatic versions; the PM (1965) was built for elite sport pilots, the PS reverted to a tailwheel.
Nanchang CJ-5: Chinese licence-built Yak-18, 379 completed by 1958.
Yak-18T (1967): a largely new four-seat cabin aircraft sharing the name, still used by Russian flying schools.

Technical Data

Yakovlev Yak-18A specifications

Specifications

Crew: 2 (tandem)
Length: 8.35 m (27 ft 5 in)
Wingspan: 10.6 m (34 ft 9 in)
Height: 3.35 m (11 ft 0 in)
Wing area: 17.8 m² (192 sq ft)
Empty weight: 1,025 kg (2,260 lb)
Max take-off weight: 1,320 kg (2,910 lb)
Powerplant: 1 × Ivchenko AI-14R 9-cylinder radial, about 260 hp (194 kW)
Maximum speed: about 263–300 km/h (163–186 mph), figures vary by source
Range: about 700–725 km (435–450 mi)
Service ceiling: about 5,000 m (16,400 ft)
Armament: None as built; North Korean aircraft carried light bombs on improvised racks

Costs & production

Unit cost: No reliable Soviet-era price has been published; the type was cheap to build in large series
Cost per flight hour: Roughly US$250–450 per hour for a privately operated warbird today, an estimate based on fuel and oil burn of a small radial plus engine and airframe reserves; not an official figure
Production: Commonly given as 6,000+ two-seat and aerobatic aircraft in the USSR plus 379 CJ-5s in China; some totals that include later variants exceed 8,000
Programme: 1946–1960s (classic Yak-18 family); Yak-18T four-seater produced later

03The Yak-18’s numbers: why the production totals disagree

Production of the Yak-18 family was split between factories at Leningrad, Kharkiv and Arsenyev and ran in several overlapping variants, so published totals differ widely. Russian-language accounts give between about 3,750 and 4,830 for the original tailwheel Yak-18, around 960 Yak-18U and roughly 950 Yak-18A, before counting the aerobatic single-seaters and the 379 Chinese CJ-5s. Some popular references quote far higher figures because they fold in the unrelated four-seat Yak-18T. We use 6,000+ as a cautious floor for the trainer family.

04The Yak-18’s operating costs: a frugal radial

For its era the Yak-18 was among the cheapest military aircraft to run: a small radial, a light airframe and simple systems that flying-club mechanics could maintain. For civilian owners today, the main costs are fuel, engine overhauls and sourcing parts for the M-11 or AI-14 radials. Our estimate of about US$250–450 per flight hour is based on typical private warbird operation of comparable radial trainers and should be read as an order of magnitude only.

Timeline

The Yak-18 from Yakovlev’s drawing board to today’s warbird scene

1945

Design begins

In May Yakovlev starts work on a two-seat primary trainer to replace the UT-2.

1946

First flight

Test pilot G. S. Klimushkin flies the prototype on 6 May, powered by a 160 hp M-11FR.

1947

Into service

Approved for Soviet service in March after favourable state trials; production expands across three factories.

1950

Exports to China

Yak-18s reach China; licence production as the Nanchang CJ-5 follows, 379 built by 1958.

1953

Night raids in Korea

North Korean Yak-18s harass UN lines; in June a small formation fires a fuel dump near Inchon and Guy Bordelon downs two on 29 June.

1954

Tricycle Yak-18U

A nosewheel version is introduced to prepare cadets for jet trainers and fighters.

1955

Gagarin goes solo

Yuri Gagarin makes his first solo flight on the type at the Saratov aero club.

1957

Yak-18A

The AI-14R-powered Yak-18A enters production as the definitive two-seat version.

1966

World champions

Flying the single-seat Yak-18PM, the Soviet team wins the title at the fourth World Aerobatic Championships.

2026

Retracing the route

Modernised Yak-18Ts fly more than 3,000 km from Saratov to Baikonur in tribute to Gagarin’s path from aero club to cosmodrome.

Stories & Eyewitnesses

Stories & eyewitnesses: the Yak-18 in schools, war and sport

Record

Klimushkin’s first flight

A year after the war, a modest trainer takes to the air.

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On 6 May 1946 Yakovlev test pilot G. S. Klimushkin took the first Yak-18 aloft. Factory trials led to a better propeller, and the air force research institute’s state commission then reported that the new trainer was substantially superior to the UT-2 it was meant to replace. Approval for service came in March 1947. For a bureau best known for the Yak-3 and Yak-9 fighters, a 160 hp trainer was an unglamorous job, but it would outlast almost everything else Yakovlev built in the 1940s.

People

Gagarin at Saratov

The first man in space learnt to fly on a Yak-18.

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In 1955 Yuri Gagarin was studying at an industrial technical school in Saratov and spending his spare time at the local DOSAAF aero club. It was there, on a Yak-18, that he made his first solo flight. The aero club sent him on to the Orenburg military pilots’ school and to the MiG-15, and from there to the cosmonaut corps. In April 2026 a group of modernised Yak-18T aircraft retraced a route from Saratov via Orenburg to Baikonur in his honour, covering more than 3,000 km in a week.

People

No Kum-sok’s first wings

The defector who delivered a MiG-15 started on the same trainer.

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No Kum-sok, the North Korean lieutenant who landed his MiG-15 at Kimpo in September 1953 and handed the West its first intact example, began his flying training on the Yak-18. He told his story in the memoir A MiG-15 to Freedom. For him, as for thousands of North Korean, Chinese and Soviet cadets of the period, the Yak-18 was the first step on the road to the jet fighter.

Combat

Washing Machine Charlie

Slow trainers that kept a whole army awake.

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UN soldiers in Korea learnt to recognise the uneven drone of small piston aircraft overhead after dark. The North Korean air force sent Yak-18s and Po-2 biplanes on low-level night sorties with light bombs, and the troops called them Washing Machine Charlie or Bed Check Charlie. Jet night fighters struggled to intercept them: they flew too slowly and too low. The raids rarely did serious damage, but they cost sleep and forced the allocation of fighters, guns and searchlights out of all proportion to the threat.

Combat

The Inchon fuel dump

The night a handful of trainers burned millions of gallons.

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In June 1953, with armistice talks already under way, a formation of four or five North Korean Yak-18s reached the Inchon area by night and hit a fuel dump holding some 5.5 million US gallons. The resulting fire was the most damaging single success of the night-heckler campaign and showed how a lightly armed trainer, flown with nerve, could exploit a gap in an otherwise overwhelming air defence. It also accelerated the deployment of US Navy piston night fighters to Korean land bases.

Combat

Bordelon’s two Yaks

A Corsair pilot catches the hecklers in the dark.

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Lieutenant Guy Bordelon of US Navy squadron VC-3 flew a radar-equipped F4U-5N Corsair he called Annie Mo. Detached ashore to hunt the night raiders, he shot down two Yak-18s on 29 June 1953, then two Lavochkin fighters the next night and a third on 17 July. Those five victories made him the Navy’s only ace of the Korean War and the only American pilot of the war to score all his kills at night.

Industry

China’s CJ-5

A licence-built Yak that taught China to build trainers.

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China received Soviet-built Yak-18s from 1950 and then put the type into licence production at Nanchang as the CJ-5. By the time production ended in 1958, 379 had been built for the People’s Liberation Army Air Force. The experience fed directly into Nanchang’s own design, the CJ-6, which kept the Yak-18’s general layout but was otherwise new, and which went on to be built in very large numbers.

Display

World champions on the PM

A trainer derivative tops the world’s aerobatic rankings.

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The single-seat Yak-18PM first flew in December 1965 and was built for the best Soviet sport pilots, with a more powerful AI-14RF radial of about 300 hp. In 1966 the Soviet team flying it won the title at the fourth World Aerobatic Championships. Only about thirty PMs were built, five converted in 1966 and 25 more in 1970 to 1972; one is preserved at the aviation museum in Kyiv.

Survivor

Forty left

Rare originals among thousands of later Yaks and Nanchangs.

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Despite the enormous production run, only around forty original Yak-18s are thought to survive worldwide, and only a handful are airworthy, in the United States, Europe and China. Most Western warbird owners fly the later Yak-52 or Chinese CJ-6, which makes a genuine Yak-18, with its five-cylinder M-11 or AI-14 radial and partly exposed retracted wheels, a rare sight at airshows.

Gallery

The Yak-18 in pictures

Operations

Where the Yak-18 flies and flew

Service Record

The Yak-18’s record

The Yak-18 was above all a schoolroom: the first aircraft for a generation of Soviet, Warsaw Pact and Chinese military pilots. Its only real combat came in Korea, where North Korean crews used it for night harassment raids in 1952 and 1953, losing at least two to a US Navy night fighter.

6,000+Trainers built, all variants

5.5m galFuel destroyed near Inchon, June 1953

1966World aerobatic team title (Yak-18PM)

See how training and combat types compare in the military aircraft statistics database. Figures are approximate.

Questions & Answers

Everything people ask about the Yak-18

Can I fly in a Yakovlev Yak-18?

MiGFlug does not offer flights in the Yak-18, but you can fly several genuine military jets today, from the L-39 Albatros to the MiG-21, see MiGFlug’s jet flights.

Did Yuri Gagarin learn to fly on the Yak-18?

Yes. Gagarin made his first solo flight on a Yak-18 at the Saratov aero club in 1955, before military flying school and the MiG-15.

Was the Yak-18 used in combat?

Yes, in Korea. North Korea fitted Yak-18 trainers with light bombs and flew them on night harassment raids against UN forces in 1952 and 1953, including a June 1953 attack that destroyed a large fuel dump near Inchon.

How many Yak-18s were built?

Totals vary by source. A cautious figure is more than 6,000 for the two-seat and aerobatic trainer family in the USSR, plus 379 licence-built Nanchang CJ-5s in China.

What engine does the Yak-18 use?

Early aircraft used the 160 hp Shvetsov M-11FR five-cylinder radial. The Yak-18A and aerobatic versions used the nine-cylinder Ivchenko AI-14R family, giving about 260 to 300 hp.

Is the Yak-18T the same aircraft as the Yak-18?

No. The Yak-18T of 1967 is a four-seat cabin aircraft that shares the name and some design heritage but is essentially a new design.

What replaced the Yak-18?

In Soviet DOSAAF and air force training the role passed to later Yakovlev types such as the Yak-52, while China developed its own Nanchang CJ-6.

The part of the museum you can fly