ORIGINAL: jrjohn
As long as were on the subject about who took what from who. Lets start in the beginning. The Yak 54 was designed and built by "Yakovlev Aviation" in Russia.
This plane was not designed by Quique Somenzini, BME, Chris, KMP or any of the other companies that have "taken" Yakovlev Aviations's design scaled it down, had it mass produced and put their lable on it.
I doubt any of the profits from these kits are going to the Russian designer, and I'm sure nobody in our country cares either. How can we in good concience complain about somebody taking a design from us that we copied from somebody else. It's insanity.
I'm sorry that somebody was hurt in the process, especially Chris who is a great guy, and I'm sorry the Yakovlev Aviation according to their own statment is not doing well.
Really, the only thing that is being used is the name. To dimensionally compare Chris' Yak to the full scale would reveal that the gear aren't even similar, the fuse on the model is over 10% longer, the stab is lower, etc. Besides, Chris' and other's offerings of his model airplane doesn't hurt Yakovlev's pocket in the least bit - it probably even helped it! Chris, on the other hand, probably lost over $100,000 with TOC's trick.
However, compare TOC and EF and they are nearly identical in dimension...it is not a coinsidence.