Yakovlev Yak-44

The Yakovlev Yak-44 (Russian: Як-44) was a proposed twin-turboprop Airborne Early Warning (AEW) aircraft, resembling the United States Navy's E-2 Hawkeye, intended for use with the Soviet Navy's Ulyanovsk class supercarriers. Along with the aircraft carrier it would have flown from, the Yak-44 was cancelled after the demise of the Soviet Union. A full-scale mockup with foldable wings was built.

In the late 1970s, the Soviet Navy adopted a plan to build large aircraft carriers capable of operating conventional aircraft rather than the VSTOL Yakovlev Yak-38s operated by the existing Kiev class aircraft carriers. These new carriers required a shipborne airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft to be effective, and the Yakovlev design bureau was instructed to develop such an aircraft in 1979.^[1][2] 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 (ASW) and carrier on-board delivery (COD) roles.^[2][3]

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 with a rotating radar dome (rotodome) above the aircraft's fuselage. The Yak-44 was designed to carry much more fuel, and was therefore far heavier.^[2][3] The engines were to be two Progress D-27 propfans rated at 14,000 ehp (10,290 kW) each, driving contra-rotating propellers. 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. The aircraft's wings also folded upwards, while a twin tail was fitted.^[2][4]

The aircraft was stressed to allow catapult launching and arrested 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).^[5]

A detailed full-size mockup was completed in 1991, and approved with minor changes by the Soviet Naval Aviation (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 in 1993.^[5][6][7]

Data from Yakovlev Aircraft since 1924^[6]

General characteristics

• Crew: 5
• Length: 20.39 m (66 ft 11 in)
• Wingspan: 25.7 m (84 ft 4 in)
• Height: 7 m (23 ft 0 in) ^[7]
• Max takeoff weight: 40,000 kg (88,185 lb)
• Powerplant: 2 × Progress D-27 propfan, 10,290 kW (13,800 hp) each
• Propellers: 14-bladed SPE Aerosila SV-27

Performance

• Maximum speed: 740 km/h (460 mph, 400 kn)
• Range: 4,000 km (2,500 mi, 2,200 nmi)
• Service ceiling: 13,000 m (43,000 ft)

• Antonov An-71
• Antonov An-75 - proposed carrier compatible version of the AN-71

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

• Grumman E-2 Hawkeye

Notes

Bibliography

• "Large model of the Yak-44E, from the Yakovlev Design Bureau museum". A.S. Yakovlev design bureau. Archived from the original (JPG) on 2016-11-30. Retrieved November 29, 2019.
  • "Design Bureau museum". A.S. Yakovlev design bureau. Archived from the original on 2019-12-24.
• Line drawing
• Abidin, Vadim (March 2008). "Eagle eye fleet: Yak-44E radar patrol and guidance aircraft". Oboronnyy Zakaz (Defense Order) (in Russian). No. 18. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 18, 2019. Retrieved July 17, 2019 – via A.S. Yakovlev design bureau, Kryl'ia Rodiny (Wings of the Motherland) magazine.