Yakovlev Yak-42 Yak-42D

The original Yak-42 was short-legged for Soviet distances, reaching a little under 2,790 km. The answer was the Yak-42D — Dal'niy, long-range — which added supplementary tanks of 3,100 litres each in the centre fuselage and lifted maximum take-off weight to 57,500 kg. Range grew to around 4,000 km with no change to the engines or the aerodynamics.

Series production of this version began in 1988 and completely displaced the earlier standard. By 1 January 1995, 185 Yak-42s of all versions had been built, 105 of them Yak-42Ds. The last aircraft was handed over in 2003; one unfinished fuselage was left in the Saratov shops and the rest of the work in progress was eventually scrapped.

A Yugoslav order for seven aircraft announced in 1982 lapsed, and the type barely left the Soviet Union until the extra range made it saleable abroad. From 1991 small batches went to Bosnia, China, Cuba and Iran, and with them came the type's international career: Cubana, China General Aviation, Avioimpex, Lithuanian Airlines and UM Air all flew it on scheduled and charter work.

The Yak-42D was involved in the type's best-known accidents, nearly all of them attributed to crew error: China General Aviation Flight 7552 at Nanjing in 1992, Avioimpex Flight 110 near Ohrid in 1993, Cubana Flight 310 in Venezuela in 1999, the UM Air crash at Trabzon in 2003 carrying Spanish troops home from Afghanistan, and the 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl accident. The closure of the Saratov factory in 2011 left operators without manufacturer support.

The surviving fleet is small and Russian. Around twenty-two aircraft were still in commercial service in 2019, and by 2025 Izhavia and KrasAvia were flying them on northern and Siberian routes, where built-in airstairs and tolerance of thinly equipped airports still count for something.