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Yakovlev Yak-38 (Forger)

1976 COLD WAR

History of Yakovlev Yak-38 (forged)

Yakovlev The Yak-38 (NATO codename "Forger") became the Soviet Union's first (and last) VSTOL (Vertical, Short Takeoff and Landing) service aircraft. The vehicle attempted to play roughly the same role as the competing British Aerospace Harrier series, but proved to be a more restrictive design that prevented the aircraft from achieving greater success in operational service.

231 examples built across all famous brands, including two-seat forms for coaches. After the collapse of the Soviet Empire (1947-1991), the line was officially decommissioned in 1991 and its role as a ship was not replaced by any other product.

While the British were busy developing their Harrier jump jets, the Soviets were hard at work developing their own VTOL system. Yakovlev began working on this form in the 1960s, producing the Yak-104. When this initiative was abandoned, a new project appeared, which eventually became the Yak-36.

The Yak-36 "Freehand" ended its days as a test item with four prototypes, but proved to play an important role in the production of the prototype Yak-38 - "Yak-36M".

The Yak-36M actually had little in common with the earlier Yak-36, with a thinner fuselage and a shorter main aircraft. A vertical tail was retained and a downwardly sloping horizontal plane was added. The split air intake is used to take air into the engine unit. The primary power for forward flight is provided by dedicated turbojets with substantial power output, while two smaller, less powerful turbojets are used for lift and are mounted vertically in a housing at the rear of the cockpit. The cockpit puts one, which itself sits behind a short nose cone.

The final version of the aircraft was intended for service with the Soviet Navy on Kyiv-class aircraft carriers, with the usual carrier-friendly features such as folding wings and reinforced landing gear. The landing gear adopts a retractable tricycle design.

The first flight of the Yak-38 prototype was recorded in early 1971. Takeoff and landing procedures have been fully automated to relieve pilots of some of the responsibility. The ejection seats are integrated into the elevator motors because if they fail and the plane starts to roll, the pilot will be "safely" ejected from the doomed plane. The computer-controlled engine system is designed to provide the correct thrust mix for each lift unit to ensure the aircraft remains in the air through precise calculations. Eventually, short takeoffs and landings of aircraft became more common, rather than relying on true vertical takeoff and landing maneuvers.

The lift vents behind the pilot's seat are exposed during vertical flight, while the main engine exhausts (located under the rear of the aircraft) swivel down to balance lift.

Armament is variable, but limited to gun bays, rocket bays, bombs and rockets (Yak-38 has no internal cannon). Four hardpoints are seen, two under each wing.

The Yak-36M is essentially a pre-production example, powered by an underpowered 14,660-pound thrust engine, slightly different from a production-grade aircraft. This work then gave birth to the Yak-38 (NATO: "Forger-A"), which entered the Soviet Navy as the first aircraft in service in August 1976.

They were powered by 16,250 lb thrust engines and produced a total of 143 units.

To train Soviet Navy pilots in complex VSTOL flights, the Forger was developed as a special two-seat training form in the Yak-38U (NATO: "Forger-B"). The fuselage was lengthened to accommodate a second cockpit, and the model entered service on November 15, 1978, with 38 prototypes subsequently going into production.

After a period of service, the Yak-38 family was modernized to produce the Yak-38M codename "Forger-A". The Tumansky R-28 V-300 (vector thrust) and Rybinsk RD-38 engine combinations replaced the original pairings of forward propulsion and lift thrust, respectively. The extra power increased the design's maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) by more than 2,000 pounds, which resulted in strengthened underwing hardpoints to carry heavier war loads.

The air intake was modified for the new engine, which went live in June 1985, with 50 examples to follow.

There are also several unrealized Forger offshoots in its operational history: the Yak-36P was designed as a supersonic fighter, and the Yak-38MP was designed to carry the Mikoyan MiG-29 "Pivot" family of advanced navigation and attack kit fighters. The Yak-39 was planned as a multipurpose platform, but as an abandoned project, it joined other projects in the history of Soviet aviation.

During the Soviet-Afghan War in the 1980s, the Yak-38 had extremely limited combat. Twelve sorties were flown without any major action. The Yak-38 family as a whole suffers from inherently limited combat range, limited power, and limited weapon carrying capabilities, making it effective in any role.

Still, it provided solid naval defense on Soviet aircraft carriers, as it could carry useful air-to-air missiles (AAM).

After the official phase-out of the Yak-38 series in 1991-1992, series that attempted to replace the shipboard VTOL role with the Tak-41 "Freestyle" and the Yak-43 were unsuccessful - resulting in the Yak-38 being allowed for the foreseeable The future retains its place in the history of Soviet naval aviation.