Yakovlev AIR-12
The Yakovlev AIR-12 was a long-range sport aircraft designed and built in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s. Design and development. In 1936 Yakovlev designed a long-range sport aircraft, intended to perform record-breaking long-distance flights. Adhering to his established design methods, the AIR-12 had a welded steel tube covered by removable aluminium panels at the nose, plywood skinning back to the wing trailing edge and fabric fabric-covered rear fuselage. The plywood skinned wooden wings had a high aspect ratio and were sharply tapered with leading-edge sweep and straight trailing-edges. Control  surfaces and tail unit were built up with D1 (duralumin) and covered with fabric. Accommodation was provided for pilot and passenger/navigator in two closed cockpits. The pilot sat in the rear cockpit aft of the wing trailing-edges under a small forward-sliding canopy and flip-open side panels. The passenger/navigator's cockpit had a flush glazed roof and was situated over the centre-section. Power was supplied by the ubiquitous Shvetsov M-11 5-cylinder air-cooled radial engine, driving a two-bladed wooden fixed pitch propeller. Fuel was carried in a single large tank in the fuselage  forward of the front cockpit and an auxiliary tank could also be fitted in the front cockpit. The AIR-12 was fitted with a retractable tail-wheel undercarriage with the main-wheels retracting inwards, operated by cables, torque shaft and hand crank in the pilots cockpit. After initial flight testing and Piontovskiy's long distance flight in September 1936, the AIR-12 was re-engined with a M-11Ye. Operational history. Flight testing of the AIR-12 commenced in August 1936, including a long-distance non-stop flight, flown by Yulian I. Piontkovskiy on 21 September 1936, from Moscow to Kharkiv to Sevastopol, returning  to Kharkiv, in a time of 10 hours 45 minutes, covering . On 24 October 1937 the AIR-12, flown by Valentina Grizodoobova (pilot) and Marina Roskova (navigator), flew from Moscow to Akhtoobinsk but the flight was not recognised by the FAI due to no official observer being present.