Originally Posted by
xraf
Although it seems obvious, the snag is IO540 we are talking about cold war Russian technology. When you fly old aircraft especially military stuff, by default, you accept the fact that it is 'old fashioned' this design flaw may not be acceptable today but when was this designed 50/60 years ago
The Yak52 looks like a WW2 warbird, but I think it only dates back to the 1970s, so is a much newer desighn than many western light aeroplanes.
The reason it's like that (and why there's, for instance, poor cockpit ergonomics and no gear unsafe warning system, and an engine that can readily suffer hydraulic locks) is that it's a military aeroplane. It was designed to be operated in a very controlled and disiplined environment. Engineers would pre-flight the aeroplane and drain the intakes of oil, a fire crew would stand by during engine start, and flight crew would wear flying suites with zipped pockets and no need to carry a screw driver.
Those of us who operated or operate these aeroplanes in the west are well aware of all this and take the neccessary precautions, as I'm sure this crew did. However, oprating this complex aeroplane outside of its high-manpower military environment will always carry an extra slice of risk, no matter how careful the crew is.
SSD