If someone can identify this aircraft, please tell me which aircraft this is?
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asked Oct 17, 2019 at 16:04
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7$\begingroup$ ... also known as the source of a lot of F-35 design data. $\endgroup$– AEhere supports MonicaCommented Oct 17, 2019 at 16:38
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3$\begingroup$ This totally looks like someone photoshopped in pumpkins for those downward facing engines. $\endgroup$– enderlandCommented Oct 18, 2019 at 0:49
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3$\begingroup$ Jack-o-lanterns for afterburners. 🎃 $\endgroup$– M.MatCommented Oct 18, 2019 at 9:55
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2 Answers
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It's a Russian YAK-141
This was the VTOL prototype meant to compete with the Harrier and perform carrier-based work (note: edited for clarity)
Designers from the Yakovlev bureau found out, that the double engine scheme of the Yak-38 and Harrier was not suitable for the new plane. Instead they created a layout with a single engine, that could turn 95° down, located in the middle of the fuselage, just behind the center of gravity. [Two additional vertical thrust engines] would turn on only during vertical take-off, vertical landing and hovering. Engineers had to stretch body of the aircraft for aerodynamic stability. This is why the Yak-141 is larger than its predecessor, the Yak-38.
The plane was never mass produced
The Yak-141 multi-role fighter did not enter production. The funding for this program ceased in 1991 after a landing accident on the aircraft carrier, when one prototype landed during excessive side wind and was badly damaged. After collapse of the Soviet Union military funding was limited. In 1992 the Yak-141 program was canceled as it happened with many other promising weapon systems. Also by 1995 Russia decommissioned all Kiev class aircraft carriers, this plane was intended for.
answered Oct 17, 2019 at 16:21
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4$\begingroup$ The first quotation is largely incorrect. The Yak-141 'engine scheme' is very similar to that of Yak-38, as opposed to Harrier, which had a single engine. The challenge was, apart from control difficulties inherited from Yak-38, to create a supersonic rotating nozzle. $\endgroup$– ZeusCommented Oct 17, 2019 at 23:31
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2$\begingroup$ "Two additional vertical thrust engines... ...just behind the center of gravity" Really? What are they keeping in the nose, uranium? $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 18, 2019 at 12:46
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4$\begingroup$ @EricHauenstein The phrasing is awful but they meant what they wrote: "Instead they created a layout with a single engine, that could turn 95° down with two additional vertical thrust engines, located in the middle of the fuselage, just behind the center of gravity." The single engine is behind the center of gravity, and it could turn down with the two additional engines. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 18, 2019 at 14:53
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$\begingroup$ @RamonSnir That's how I read it as well. They grammar could have been better to indicate the single engine was behind the center of gravity. Because of the way it's vaguely written, it sounds like they could be talking about the forward vertical engines, which would make no sense. I made an editorial edit to clarify what they were saying. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 18, 2019 at 14:58
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2$\begingroup$ @Machavity I only understood it after reading the Wikipedia article, that phrased it in a more clearer way: "Eventually it was decided that the best arrangement was a single vectoring nozzle located just behind the center of gravity, as well as dedicated vertical thrust jets positioned just behind the cockpit." $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 18, 2019 at 15:29
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Russian YAK-141 aka YAK-41 VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing).
