Yakovlev Yak-8

The Yakovlev Yak-8 was a Soviet utility transport developed during the Second World War as an enlarged development of the Yak-6. It kept the mixed construction of its predecessor, with a plywood-skinned wooden forward and central fuselage, a fabric-covered tubular steel rear fuselage and a two-spar wooden wing, but its deeper fuselage gave headroom for six passengers instead of four. Two 190 hp Kossov M-12 engines were intended, yet they were unavailable and two 145 hp Shvetsov M-11FM radials were used. Two prototypes were built, the first flying in early 1944. The lighter second prototype passed State acceptance tests and was recommended for production but never ordered, probably because the Soviets were switching to all-metal aircraft, although it still received the NATO reporting name Crib.