The Yakovlev Yak-44 () was a proposed twin-

turboprop A turboprop is a Gas turbine, gas turbine engine that drives an aircraft Propeller (aeronautics), propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction drive, reduction gearbox, gas compressor, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propellin ...

Airborne Early Warning An airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) system is an airborne radar early warning system designed to detect aircraft, ships, vehicles, missiles and other incoming projectiles at long ranges, as well as performing command and control of t ...

(AEW) aircraft, resembling the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

E-2 Hawkeye The Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye is an American all-weather, carrier-capable tactical airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft. This twin-turboprop aircraft was designed and developed during the late 1950s and early 1960s by the Grumman Aircraft ...

, intended for use with the

Soviet Navy The Soviet Navy was the naval warfare Military, uniform service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy made up a large part of the Soviet Union's strategic planning in the event of a conflict with t ...

's ''Ulyanovsk'' class

supercarrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the capital ship of a ...

s. Along with the

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

it would have flown from, the Yak-44 was cancelled after the demise of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. A full-scale mockup with foldable wings was built.

Design and development

In the late 1970s, the

adopted a plan to build large aircraft carriers capable of operating conventional aircraft rather than the

VSTOL A vertical and/or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) aircraft is an airplane able to take-off or land vertically or on short runways. Vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft are a subset of V/STOL craft that do not require runways at al ...

Yakovlev Yak-38 The Yakovlev Yak-38 (; NATO reporting name: "Forger") was 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 ...

s operated by the existing Kiev class aircraft carriers. These new carriers required a shipborne

airborne early warning An airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) system is an airborne radar early warning system designed to detect aircraft, ships, vehicles, missiles and other incoming projectiles at long ranges, as well as performing command and control of t ...

(AEW) aircraft to be effective, and the Yakovlev

design bureau OKB () is a transliteration of the Russian initials for "" (), which translates to "Experimental Design Bureau." It could also mean or "Special Design Bureau" in english. During the Soviet era, OKBs were closed institutions working on design and ...

was instructed to develop such an aircraft in 1979.Gardiner and Chumbley 1995, p. 372.Gordon, Komissarov and Komissarov 2005, p. 347. While the AEW would be the primary role for the aircraft, it was also planned to develop versions to serve in the

anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in the older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations ar ...

(ASW) and carrier on-board delivery (COD) roles.Gunston and Gordon 1997, p. 201. The basic layout and size of the final Yak-44E design was similar to that of the Grumman E-2C which operated in the same role from American aircraft carriers, being a twin-engined high-wing

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

with a rotating

radar dome A radome (a portmanteau of "radar" and "dome") is a structural, weatherproof enclosure that protects a radar antenna. The radome is constructed of material transparent to radio waves. Radomes protect the antenna from weather and conceal an ...

(

rotodome A radome (a portmanteau of "radar" and "dome") is a structural, weatherproof enclosure that protects a radar antenna. The radome is constructed of material transparent to radio waves. Radomes protect the antenna from weather and conceal an ...

) above the aircraft's fuselage. The Yak-44 was designed to carry much more fuel, and was therefore far heavier. The engines were to be two

Progress D-27 The Progress D-27 is a three-shaft propfan engine developed by Ivchenko Progress, and manufactured by Motor Sich in Ukraine. The gas generator was designed using experience from the Lotarev D-36 turbofan. The D-27 engine was designed to power ...

propfan A propfan, also called an open rotor engine, open fan engine is an aircraft engine combining features of turbofans and turboprops. It uses advanced, curved propeller blades without a ducted fan, duct. Propfans aim to combine the speed capabili ...

s rated at 14,000 ehp (10,290 kW) each, driving

contra-rotating propellers Aircraft equipped with contra-rotating propellers (CRP) coaxial contra-rotating propellers, or high-speed propellers, apply the maximum power of usually a single engine piston powered or turboprop engine to drive a pair of coaxial propellers i ...

. The crew of five were to be accommodated in a pressurized fuselage, while the aircraft's rotodome, carrying a NPO Vega pulse-doppler radar could be retracted to reduce the aircraft's height when stowed below decks in the carrier's

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

. The aircraft's wings also folded upwards, while a

twin tail A twin tail is a type of vertical stabilizer arrangement found on the empennage of some aircraft. Two vertical stabilizers—often smaller on their own than a single conventional tail would be—are mounted at the outside of the aircraft's ho ...

was fitted.Gunston and Gordon 1997, pp. 201–202. The aircraft was stressed to allow

catapult A catapult is a ballistics, ballistic device used to launch a projectile at a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other propellants – particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. A catapult uses the sudden rel ...

launching and

arrested An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken into custody, the person can be Interroga ...

landings, but was also capable of operating from the ski-jump ramps of the Project 1143.5 carriers (later to become known as the ''Admiral Kuznetsov'' class).Gordon, Komissarov and Komissarov 2005, p. 348. A detailed full-size

mockup In manufacturing and design, a mockup, or mock-up, is a scale or full-size model of a design or device, used for teaching, demonstration, design evaluation, promotion, and other purposes. A mockup may be a ''prototype'' if it provides at lea ...

was completed in 1991, and approved with minor changes by the

Soviet Naval Aviation Soviet Naval Aviation (AV-MF, ) was the naval aviation arm of the Soviet Navy. Origins The first naval aviation units in Russia were formed in 1912–1914 as a part of the Baltic Fleet and the Black Sea Fleet. During World War I, the hydro ...

(A-VMF). The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 resulted in the program being delayed, with the catapult-equipped ''Ulyanovsk'' being cancelled and scrapped, and the second ''Admiral Kuznetsov'' class carrier, the ''Varyag'', being left incomplete. The Yak-44 program was abandoned by the

Russian Navy The Russian Navy is the Navy, naval arm of the Russian Armed Forces. It has existed in various forms since 1696. Its present iteration was formed in January 1992 when it succeeded the Navy of the Commonwealth of Independent States (which had i ...

in 1993.Gunston and Gordon 1997, p. 202.

Specifications (Yak-44E)

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Gardiner, Robert and Stephen Chumbley. ''Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995''. Annapolis, Maryland, USA: Naval Institute Press, 1995. . * Gordon, Yefim, Dmitry Komissarov and Sergey Komissarov. ''OKB Yakovlev: A History of the Design Bureau and its Aircraft''. Hinkley, UK: Midland Publishing, 2005. . * Gunston, Bill and Yefim Gordon. ''Yakovlev Aircraft since 1924''. London, UK: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1997. . * Taylor, Michael. ''Brassey's World's Aircraft & Systems Directory 1996/97''. London: Brassey's, 1996. .

External links

* **
Line drawing
* {{Yakovlev aircraft Yak-044 Carrier-based aircraft AEW aircraft Abandoned military aircraft projects of the Soviet Union Propfan-powered aircraft Twin-turboprop tractor aircraft Aircraft with retractable tricycle landing gear Twin-tail aircraft

Design and development

Specifications (Yak-44E)

See also

References

External links