Yakovlev Yak-38

Yak-38
A Yak-38 on the deck of a Soviet aircraft carrier
Role	VTOL Fighter aircraft
National origin	Soviet Union
Manufacturer	Yakovlev
First flight	1971
Introduction	1976
Status	Retired, 1991
Primary user	Soviet Navy
Produced	1971–1981
Number built	231, including Yak-38U — 34 Yak-38M — 52
Unit cost	US$18.5 million in 1996
Developed from	Yakovlev Yak-36

The Yakovlev Yak-38 (Russian: Яковлев Як-38; NATO reporting name: "Forger") was the Soviet Naval Aviation's only operational VTOL strike fighter aircraft, in addition to being its first operational carrier-based fixed-wing aircraft. It was developed specifically for, and served almost exclusively, on the Kiev-class aircraft carriers.

Designed by the A.S. Yakovlev Design Bureau JSC, the first drawings showed a supersonic aircraft strongly resembling the Hawker P.1154 in study in the United Kingdom, but with two R27-300 engines. Supersonic performances would have implied many difficulties of development, and it was decided to initially develop a relatively simple aircraft limited to Mach 0.95. Although the Yak-38 and Yak-38M were developed from the land-based Yakovlev Yak-36, the aircraft had almost nothing in common.

The prototype VM-01 was finished on 14 April 1970. Though outwardly similar to the British Hawker Siddeley Harrier, it followed a completely different configuration. Together with a vectorable thrust engine in the rear used during flight, two smaller, and less powerful, engines were housed in the front portion of the fuselage and used purely for takeoff and landing.

The Yak-38 possessed an automatic ejection seat. If one of the takeoff engines failed, once the aircraft rolled past 60 degrees the pilot was automatically ejected from the aircraft.

The majority of Yak-36M initial production deliveries were to the 279 OKShAP (Otdelny Korabelny Shturmovoy Aviatsionny Polk, Independent Shipboard Attack Air Regiment), initially based at Saki, the AV-MF's training centre in Crimea.

In July 1979, Minsk arrived in the Sea of Japan, where the vessel was home-ported at Strelok Bay, the Yak-38 component of its air wing thereafter being provided by the 311 OKShAP subordinate to the Pacific Fleet.

In September 1982, Novorossiysk – the third Kiev-class carrier – was commissioned. By now the V/STOL technique had been well practised, and the resulting increase in the Yak-38's overall performance and capability was exploited during the passage of Novorossiysk from Severomorsk to join the Pacific Fleet. In a maritime context, the Yak-38 was not limited to the decks of Kiev. In September 1983, AV-MF pilots operated from the civilian Ro-Ro vessel Agostinio Neto, and NII-VVS pilots conducted further tests from another 'Ro-Ro', Nikolai Cherkasov. In both cases, use was made of a heat-resistant landing platform; further land-based trials tested the practicality of dispersed landing platforms, in a similar concept to the RAF's Harrier operations in West Germany.