Yakovlev Yak-38

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Yak-38

Type	VTOL fighter
Manufacturer	Yakovlev
Maiden flight	1971
Introduced	1976
Status	Retired
Primary user	Soviet Navy
Number built	230

The Yakovlev Yak-38 (NATO reporting name: Forger) was Soviet Naval Aviation's first and only operational VTOL multi-role combat aircraft.

1 History
2 Users
3 Specifications (Yakovlev Yak-38M)
4 External link
5 Related content

[edit] History

The prototype Yak-38 flew for the first time in 1971. It based on the Yak-36 'Freehand' technology demonstrator. Sea trials aboard the aviation cruiser Kiev were observed in 1975. About 75 Yak-38 aircraft were produced, including a small number of two-seat trainers (Yak-38U). These were based on the four Kiev class aircraft carriers. In the mid-1990s these carriers were withdrawn from service, together with their Yak-38s.

1/72 model of Yak-38 atOlympic Air Museum. Note lift engine intake and unidentified missile stores.

Although the plane's operational effectiveness was limited, while it was in service, it was the only other operational combat VTOL design of dozens of failed projects worldwide besides its Western contemporary, the considerably more capable Hawker Siddeley Harrier, and the Harrier's successor the Anglo-US Harrier II. The Forger was deficient in speed, weapons, and range compared to the Harrier which performed effectively as both a bomber and air superiority fighter over the Falklands. The Kiev class certainly fell far short of the punch of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier's complement of conventional Tomcats, Hornets and Intruders. Its wings were too small to take advantage of a rolling takeoff, or the ski-jump ramp used on British carriers. The Harrier has an oversized main engine large enough to lift the entire takeoff weight, which provides excess thrust and thrust vectoring that make the Harrier a difficult opponent in a dogfight. Like the still-born German VFW VAK 191B, it relied on fixed vertical lift fans for vertical flight that were dead weight in horizontal flight, but was it not designed for supersonic dash speed made possible by a narrower engine intake frontal area. The Soviets were developing a supersonic successor in the Yak-141 'Freestyle' whose technology would partially influence Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II, but that program was drastically curtailed with the fall of the Soviet Union.

One interesting feature of the Yak-38 was hands-free landing. The aircraft could negotiate a telemetry/telecommand link with a computer system in the aircraft carrier which would allow it to be guided onto the deck with no interaction from the pilot. It was supposedly impossible to achieve a vertical landing under manual control.