The YAKs Are Coming

In a shiny new hangar near Barranquilla, Colombia, a team of Soviet technicians has been assembling a plane that looks like a small bullet with wings. The stubby little jet, known as the "Codling" to NATO plane spotters and as YAK-40 to its builders, is the leading edge of a Soviet thrust into Western aviation markets. The YAKs are coming.

The Barranquilla project is part of a proposed sale of five YAKs to Aerocondor, a Colombian airline. In addition, two regional airlines and a travel agency in West Germany have ordered eight YAK-40s and taken options on six more. A small charter carrier in Italy has two of the jets on order. Commuter airlines in Italy, France, England and Sweden are dickering for YAKs with Aviaexport, the Soviet aircraft export agency. Aviaexport has asked the Boeing Co. to distribute and service the plane in the U.S.

Like the DC-3. A 27-seat trijet, the YAK can fly on one engine and take off or land on a 1,300-ft.-long dirt strip. It sells for less than $1,200,000. As the designer, Alexei Yakovlev, told TIME Correspondent Jerry Hannifin: "My ship is a true jet successor to the Douglas DC-3. The YAK-40 can operate out of any field that can take a DC-3, and no other jet transport meets that specification."

Aviaexport is now eager to sell YAKs abroad, principally to developing countries that lack modern airport facilities. The agency gives exceptionally easy credit terms. For the Colombians, they were no money down with 15 years to pay at 2% interest. The Soviets have also offered to build a factory in Colombia that would supply YAKs to the rest of the Western Hemisphere. Colombian officials have not accepted the deal, but they have let the Russians assemble a sample plane at Barranquilla that will soon begin demonstration flights in ten countries.

As impressive as the YAK may be, it is hardly an immediate threat to U.S. aviation superiority. The Soviets have been slow to deliver: two of the three YAKs ordered by the Italian charter airline Aertirrena two years ago have not yet been received. The delay is caused partly by local aviation authorities, who must certify new models as to airworthiness before allowing them to enter service. The Soviets only recently allowed Italian and West German inspectors to visit all the YAK component factories necessary for certification.

Spare Parts. European officials have already insisted that new dual hydraulic systems, fire safety devices, instrumentation and radio navigation equipment be installed to meet Western standards. Reluctant to aid any Russian foray into Western aviation markets, the State Department has long opposed any U.S. certification of the YAK for service, but that opposition is softening with the new White House interest in increased Soviet trade. Nonetheless, it may be years before some Western buyers are ready to depend on the Soviets for servicing and spare parts.

Aviaexport salesmen are moving on other fronts. Boeing and Aviaexport are competing for the sale of eight medium-and long-range transports to Egyptair. A West German building contractor has bought a giant Soviet KA-26 helicopter. Aviaexport's man in West Germany reports that he is negotiating to sell a 250-passenger TU-154 jet to a local travel combine. Now that plans for an American SST have been scrapped, some Western airline executives have been visiting Moscow to examine the TU-144 supersonic transport, which is scheduled to begin regular flights inside Russia next year.

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