Yakovlev Design Bureau,before years of war, developed one airplane for training pilots

In the pre-war years, the Yakovlev Design Bureau specialized in the development of sports, training and multi-purpose aircraft, so much so that at the end of the war it received the task of developing an aircraft for the initial training of pilots.

In 1946, the legendary domestic Yak-18 aircraft took to the skies. It was this machine that opened the way to the sky for thousands of kids in the USSR: future military pilots, civilians and...cosmonauts. In 1955, Yuri Gagarin flew the same aircraft (in the Yak-18U variant).
The Yak-18A is the third major serial modification, qualitatively improved thanks to a much more powerful engine. Work began in 1956. The aircraft was first called "modified Yak-18U", then Yak-20 and from 1957 Yak-18A.

It was used for initial training in military and civilian piloting schools and DOSAAF schools of the USSR as a training and sports aircraft.
More than 4,000 aircraft of this type were built and it was supplied to many countries as well as mass-produced in China under the designation CJ-6.