Aieksandr Sergievich Yakovlev won a design competition
for lightplanes even before entering an engineering academy
in 1927. His design bureau was established 1935,
and first military design was the
AIR-1
Yak-4 twin-engined fighter,
completed 1939. The Yak-1 /3/9 series of single-seat fighters
served the Soviet Union well in combat during Second
World War and were built in larger numbers than any other
Soviet wartime fighter. A Yak-3 airframe was modified to
produce the Yak-15 jet fighter in 1945, developed subsequently
as
Yak-3 (I-30)
the Yak-17. The Yak-23 of 1947 was a complete
redesign, resembling the earlier fighters only in
fuselage configuration.
Other post-war Yakovlev designs included the Yak-12
high-wing utility aircraft, produced also in Poland and
China, Yak-11 and Yak-18 trainers, Yak-28 twin-jet bomber
and reconnaissance aircraft (production began 1960) and
related Yak-28P radar-equipped all-weather
Yak-15
interceptor
(first flown 1960), and Yak-40 (first flown October 1966)
and Yak-42 (first flown March 1975 and still in production)
short-range transports. The important Yak-38 operational
VTOL combat aircraft (first flown January 1971 but
now withdrawn from Russian naval use) was followed by
a new VTOL prototype known as the Yak-41
Yak-23
(first flown
March 1987) which was subsequently abandoned, as was
the projected next-generation STOVLYak-43 and the Yak-
44 shipborne AEW&C aircraft. The Yak-142 transport is a
new variant of Yak-42D, featuring mostly US digital avionics
and other improvements. Projected airliners include
the short-range twin-turbofan Yak-46-1 for 126 passengers,
short-range Yak-46-2 with propfan
Yak-28
engines, and Yak-
242138-180 passenger short-range airliner.
In the field of general aviation, Yakovlev developed the
Yak-18T 4-seat multipurpose lightplane development of
Yak-18 (first flown 1967 and still available), Yak-50 aerobatic
sporting aircraft (first flown 1972), Yak-52 tandem two-seat piston trainer (first flown 1974 and still built in
Romania), Yak-54 two-seat
Yak-38
aerobatic trainer (first flown
December 1993), Yak-55M single-seat aerobatic aircraft
(first flown 1989), Yak-58 six-seat business transport with
a pusher piston engine (first flown April 1994), and Yak-
112 four-seat light aircraft (first flown October 1992). General-
aviation projects include Yak-48, thought to be derived
from the Israeli-designed Galaxy, Yak-56 piston-engined
primary
Yak-40
trainer and Yak-57 single-seat aerobatic competition
aircraft. Yakovlev is also a partner with Aermacchi of
Italy in the Yak/Aem-130 and Yak-131 jet trainer and light
combat aircraft program. In total, Yakovlev has produced over 70,000 aircraft of more than 100 types since 1927,
and the present Design Bureau is joined by the Saratov
and Smolensk manufacturing facilities under Yak Aircraft
Corporation.
