Russian V/STOVL plane?

Has anyone heard of the Russians having a V/STOVL aircraft in their air force or on carriers?

The plane is called the 'Yak-38' and it seems it was the world's second operational V/STOVL fixed wing plane, after the Harrier, of course.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of detailed information around about it especially about if or when this plane was taken out of service.

Does anyone know much about this plane?





[edit on 12/8/04 by Hyperen]

It was not a very aircraft. It used a seperate engine to lift off and was worse than the Harrier in performance. The Russians did develop another V/STOVL aircraft called the Yak-141. It was a very good aircraft and it helped in the development of the F-35.

Originally posted by Hyperen
Has anyone heard of the Russians having a V/STOVL aircraft in their air force or on carriers?

The plane is called the 'Yak-38' and it seems it was the world's second operational V/STOVL fixed wing plane, after the Harrier, of course.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of detailed information around about it especially about if or when this plane was taken out of service.

Does anyone know much about this plane?

[edit on 12/8/04 by Hyperen]

There is loads of data on this plane including this: (in Russian)

www.cnw.mk.ua...

Apparently they used a few in Afghanistan (since there are no airfields high in the mountains), and then it was taken out of service in 1991.

Apparently the Yak-141 is a much cooler plane and the only supersonic VTOL jet in the world!

www.airwar.ru...

[edit on 12-8-2004 by Aelita]

Originally posted by Aelita
Apparently the Yak-141 is a much cooler plane and the only supersonic VTOL jet in the world!

I heard they abandoned development of it for financial reasons, as per, and the hot jet exhaust had a major problem burning up runways when used for VTOL - and 'recirculation' of the hot jet gave all sorts of problems to the airframe.

It looked nice thought, but then again so did the 1960's Hawker P1154.

[edit on 12-8-2004 by sminkeypinkey]

Originally posted by Aelita
Apparently the Yak-141 is a much cooler plane and the only supersonic VTOL jet in the world!
www.airwar.ru...

Not anymore. The F35 has gone supersonic and achieved VTOL.

Lets hope they can sort out the weight problems so we can use them on carriers.

BTW - Use [ url ] link here [ /url] (without the spaces in the '[]' tags) to get links to well, link. See the tutorial on the top bar for more information.

Lets hope they can sort out the weight problems so we can use them on carriers.

What weight problem are you talking about I haven't heard any problems about using the F-35 on the Nimitz. Or are you talking about weight problems as in it weighs to much to take off? And Hyperen I will vote for bush to send him to his second term instead of stopping him


[edit on 12-8-2004 by WestPoint23]

There have been weight problems in the vertical take off version but it was recently released that they have pretty much solved the problems.

the Yak-38 was designed for the Soviet Navy to complement its new Kiev Class Aircraft carrying cruisers. While not as good as the harrier, it still was a solid aircraft(though criticisms are numerous on the net). It's successor, the Yak-141 is a brilliant piece of machinery and has design features similar to the VTOL version of the F-35.

thanks,

drfunk

Originally posted by drfunk
the Yak-38 was designed for the Soviet Navy to complement its new Kiev Class Aircraft carrying cruisers. While not as good as the harrier, it still was a solid aircraft(though criticisms are numerous on the net).

- Quite right drfunk.

There is also the much over-looked - but enormously important - experience and knowledge it gave the Soviets/Russians+ in using and handling V/Stol aircraft....and a supersonic one at altitude too, apparantly, although like most V/Stol aircraft range and payload were major issues with it.

(Apparantly it was news to everyone that it had a Stol/Stovl capability)

It's successor, the Yak-141 is a brilliant piece of machinery and has design features similar to the VTOL version of the F-35.
thanks,

drfunk

- Naa drfunk, the Yak 141 is way too old to be an F35 competitor/contemporary.

(and I still think the project's been cancelled)

My information says te earlier Yak 38's were withdrawn when the four carriers had been withdrawn by 1993. I believe the last examples are in storage.

The 2 Yak 141 demonstrators were exhibited in Moscow in 1993 and no longer flyable.

There is some talk of a new Yak but Russia has not got the funds to re-equip it's armed forces in anything like the manner she once had.



[edit on 13-8-2004 by sminkeypinkey]

sminkeypinkey,

I didn't that the yak-141 had design features like the F-35 in the sense it that it could be considered a contemporary to the F-35. The JSF VTOL will be an impressive aircraft and the yak-141 won't have anything on the advanced weapon systems and avionics of the F-35.

You are right, it is too old to be considered a contemporary or even a competitor to it.

I was referring to the similarity of the rearlift/cruise nozzle on the R-79 turbofan in the Yak-141 .

And the yak-141 was considered the 38's successor when it was first designed when it was known as the yak-41, though due to a lack of funding and the removal of the majority of the carrier/cruiser fleet, it never became a reality.

thanks,
drfunk


[edit on 13-8-2004 by drfunk]

As a byline to this thread, it was reported in Flight International in the 1980's that when the Indian Navy enquired about buying the Yak-38 in 1980 they were told by a high ranking General at the Soviet high command "The Yak-38 is very limited and has several technical difficulties. To be honest, if I were you, I'd buy the Sea Harrier.

The advice was followed.

[edit on 13-8-2004 by waynos]

originally posted by: drfunk
sminkeypinkey,

I didn't that the yak-141 had design features like the F-35 in the sense it that it could be considered a contemporary to the F-35. The JSF VTOL will be an impressive aircraft and the yak-141 won't have anything on the advanced weapon systems and avionics of the F-35.

You are right, it is too old to be considered a contemporary or even a competitor to it.

I was referring to the similarity of the rearlift/cruise nozzle on the R-79 turbofan in the Yak-141

.

And the yak-141 was considered the 38's successor when it was first designed when it was known as the yak-41, though due to a lack of funding and the removal of the majority of the carrier/cruiser fleet, it never became a reality.

thanks,
drfunk


[edit on 13-8-2004 by drfunk]

Only the F-35B variant of the F-35 is designed for vertical take-off and landing, and it should be noted that the Yak-141, like the unbuilt Hawker Siddeley P.1154, wasn't stealthy. The Yakovlev Design Bureau had a design study in the 1990s for a potential successor to the Yak-141, the izdeliye 201 (aka Yak-201), which would have differed from the Yak-141 in being stealthy, but this project never reached full-scale development.

Links:
www.globalsecurity.org...
en.wikipedia.org...