Be-12 Chayka (Mail) Russian Amphibious Aircraft

Be-12 Chayka (Mail) Russian Amphibious Aircraft is a Soviet turboprop-powered amphibious aircraft designed for anti-submarine and maritime patrol duties. The Beriev Be-12 was a successor to the Beriev Be-6 flying boat, whose primary roles were as an anti-submarine and maritime patrol bomber aircraft. Though tracing its origins to the Be-6, the Be-12 inherited little more than the gull wing and twin oval tailfin configuration of the older aircraft. The Be-12 has turboprop engines, which gave it an improved speed and range over the Be-6. The Be-12 also had retractable landing gear, which enabled it to land on normal land runways, as well as water. The Be-12 was first flown on October 18, 1960, at Taganrog airfield, and made its first public appearance at the 1961 Soviet Aviation Day festivities at Tushino airfield. A total of 150 aircraft were produced, in several variations, with production ending in 1973. The Be-12 was "something old, something new, something borrowed", incorporating lessons learned on earlier Beriev flying boats, with a number of innovations incorporated. It was of all-metal construction, with a high-mounted gull wing, twin tailfins, and tricycle landing gear -- all with single wheels, the main gear pivoting upwards over the boat hull into the sides, the tailwheel pivoting backward up into the end of the aircraft. It featured fixed floats, a sea rudder at the end of the boat hull, and strakes alongside the nose to deflect seaspray. Trials with the first prototype demonstrated that seawater impacts tended to "ding" the propellers, so the second set of strakes was added lower on the fuselage under the cockpit after initial trials; the prototype's engines had also been underneath the wings, but they were relocated to the top for all following aircraft, for the same reason.