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Radial engine is back to Canadian bush. Noteworthy that it is a Russian engine now. Well, generally speaking, radial engine hasn’t been written off yet completely as a choice of power plant for specifically bush aircraft.  But it presumably means those choices were made many, many years ago, when that design for internal combustion engines was ‘in fashion’. Or, in favour among the ‘then’ engine manufacturers.

M-14P radial was spotted on a Canadian kit design, Murphy Aircraft’s  ‘Moose’. This engine, when installed to power the ‘Moose’, appears to be a great booster, speaking up immediately through increased performance.

I saw the ‘Vedeneyev M-14P-equipped Moose’ at Oshkosh, last year. When I was walking by the Murphy Aircraft’s kiosk, something looking familiar attracted my attention. And it occurred to me, a detail that ‘had ringed the bell’, was hiding under the engine cowling.

Sure enough, it was the engine itself. No wonder - I learned a lot about this engine when I attended the Aqtyubinsk Civil Aviation College in 80s. In fact, it was the first engine I flew ’sitting behind’ as a pilot trainee.

Yak-18Ts we flew as the initial flight trainers, had the same type of engine, - like the most other Yakovlev light aircraft designs. As a matter of fact, Oshkosh proved to be a right place for brushing up an old knowledge about Yakovlev planes.

So, in some sense, the Moose was a relative to them, and it was a pleasure to observe this

This basic, - ‘no frill’ - instrument panel also reminded me a kind of ‘frugal style’ that was characteristic to the ‘Soviet aircraft design school’ Oh, well, bear in mind the difference: it is another ‘epoch; it is not the ‘executive mini-liner’; and nobody’s going to ‘restrict’ your fantasy about upgrade options

(to be continued..)