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Russia · 1934–

Yakovlev

Yakovlev is the Russian design bureau founded by Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev, whose aircraft carry the "Yak" prefix. Its head office is in Moscow's Aeroport District, and it is now a subsidiary of the corporation that has taken its name for the whole civil aviation arm of the Russian state group. The bureau was formally created in 1934 as OKB-115, but dates its birth to 12 May 1927, the day of the maiden flight of the AIR-1, designed under Yakovlev's supervision in the light aircraft department of the Soviet aviation administration. It is best known for its line of Second World War piston fighters — the Yak-1, Yak-7, Yak-9 and Yak-3 — but its catalogue also covers trainers and aerobatic aircraft, the first Soviet jet fighter, the pioneers of shipborne vertical take-off and the Yak-40 and Yak-42 passenger jets. In 2006 the Russian government folded the company, together with Mikoyan, Ilyushin, Irkut, Sukhoi and Tupolev, into a single unified aircraft corporation. In August 2023 Irkut rebranded itself as Yakovlev, and with that change the Superjet became the SJ-100 while the MC-21 single-aisle jet also adopted the bureau's name.

Updated: August 2, 2026

History

From the AIR-1 to a bureau of its own

The firm's history begins before the firm itself. On 12 May 1927 the AIR-1 flew, a light aircraft developed in the light aircraft department of the Soviet aviation industry administration under the supervision of Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev, and that is the date the company claims as its birth. Formal structure came in 1934, when the team was constituted as design bureau OKB-115 with its own production base at the factory of the same number. That first period produced a family of AIR light aeroplanes and the UT-1 and UT-2 trainers, both of 1935, on which a large share of Soviet pilots learned to fly.

The fighters of the Second World War

What made Yakovlev famous was fighter design. The Yak-1 of 1940 was the starting point of a numerous and quickly developed line: the Yak-7, which by 1942 served both as a two-seat trainer and as a single-seat fighter, the Yak-9 of the same year, and the Yak-3 of 1943, a refined version of the Yak-1 and one of the most agile fighters on the Eastern Front. Alongside them the bureau signed light bombers such as the Yak-2 and Yak-4 and simple transports such as the Yak-6.

Jets, vertical take-off and airliners

The post-war years turned the bureau into a laboratory of new configurations. In 1946 the Yak-15, the first Soviet jet fighter, took to the air, followed by the Yak-17 in 1947 and the Yak-23; then came the Yak-25 interceptor and its reconnaissance derivatives, and the multi-role Yak-28 bomber. Yakovlev also explored rotary wings with the Yak-24 transport helicopter and, above all, vertical take-off: the Yak-36 demonstrator led to the Yak-38, the Soviet bloc's only carrier-borne V/STOL fighter, and that in turn to the Yak-141, the first supersonic vertical take-off fighter, which never reached production. On the civil side the bureau flew the Yak-40 and Yak-42 passenger jets, and it kept an unbroken line of trainers and aerobatic aircraft — Yak-18, Yak-50, Yak-52, Yak-55 — as well as the Pchela ("bee") reconnaissance drone, first flown in 1990.

Mergers, the state corporation and a name reclaimed

In March 1989 the bureau was combined with the Smolensk aviation plant into a joint company, though both went on operating separately, and after privatisation it became the Yak Aircraft Corporation. In April 2004 it was acquired by Irkut, and in February 2006 the Russian government merged the whole with Mikoyan, Ilyushin, Irkut, Sukhoi and Tupolev to form the country's unified aircraft corporation. The most recent turn came in August 2023, when Irkut chose to adopt the Yakovlev name for all its civil work: the Superjet was redesignated SJ-100 and the MC-21 also came under the bureau's brand. That same August of 2023 the company was placed under the Canadian government's sanctions regime.

Catalog — Aircraft

  • 1927

    Yakovlev AIR-1 Sheet pending

    Variants (3)
    • AIR-1
    • AIR-2
    • AIR-2S
  • 1929

    Yakovlev AIR-3 Sheet pending

    Variants (5)
    • AIR-3
    • AIR-4
    • AIR-4MK
    • AIR-8
    • Kozlov PS
  • 1932

    Yakovlev AIR-7 Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • AIR-7
  • 1940

    Yakovlev Yak-1 Sheet pending

    Variants (7)
    • I-26
    • I-28
    • I-30
    • UTI-26
    • Yak-1
    • Yak-1b
    • Yak-1M
  • 1940

    Yakovlev Yak-4 Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Yak-4
  • 1940

    Yakovlev Yak-7 Sheet pending

    Variants (15)
    • Ya-27
    • Yak-7
    • Yak-7-37
    • Yak-7A
    • Yak-7B
    • Yak-7D
    • Yak-7DI
    • Yak-7K
    • Yak-7 M-82
    • Yak-7PVRD
    • Yak-7R
    • Yak-7T
    • Yak-7U
    • Yak-7UTI
    • Yak-7V
  • 1942

    Yakovlev Yak-9 Sheet pending

    Variants (22)
    • Yak-9
    • Yak-9-57
    • Yak-9B
    • Yak-9D
    • Yak-9DD
    • Yak-9K
    • Yak-9M
    • Yak-9 (M-106)
    • Yak-9 MPVO
    • Yak-9M PVO
    • Yak-9P
    • Yak-9PD
    • Yak-9P (VK-107)
    • Yak-9R
    • Yak-9S
    • Yak-9T
    • Yak-9TD
    • Yak-9UT
    • Yak-9UV
    • Yak-9U (VK-105)
    • Yak-9U (VK-107)
    • Yak-9V
  • 1943

    Yakovlev Yak-3 Sheet pending

    Variants (12)
    • Yak-3
    • Yak-3K
    • Yak-3P
    • Yak-3PD
    • Yak-3RD
    • Yak-3T
    • Yak-3T-57
    • Yak-3TK
    • Yak-3U
    • Yak-3UTI
    • Yak-3 (VK-107A)
    • Yak-3 (VK-108)
  • 1944

    Yakovlev Yak-5 Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Yak-5
  • 1945

    Yakovlev Yak-11 Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Yak-11
  • 1946

    Yakovlev Yak-15 Sheet pending

    Variants (5)
    • Yak-15
    • Yak-15-RD10
    • Yak-15U
    • Yak-21
    • Yak-Jumo
  • 1947

    Yakovlev Yak-19 Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Yak-19
  • 1947

    Yakovlev Yak-23 Sheet pending

    Variants (4)
    • S-101
    • Yak-23
    • Yak-23DC
    • Yak-23UTI
  • 1947

    Yakovlev Yak-16 Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Yak-16
  • 1947

    Yakovlev Yak-25 (1947) Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Yak-25
  • 1948

    Yakovlev Yak-30 (1948) Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Yak-30
  • 1949

    Yakovlev Yak-50 (1949) Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Yak-50
  • 1952

    Yakovlev Yak-25 Sheet pending

    Variants (22)
    • Yak-120M
    • Yak-120MF
    • Yak-122
    • Yak-125B
    • Yak-25
    • Yak-25K
    • Yak-25K-75
    • Yak-25K-7L
    • Yak-25K-8
    • Yak-25L
    • Yak-25M
    • Yak-25MG
    • Yak-25MR
    • Yak-25MSh
    • Yak-25PA
    • Yak-25R
    • Yak-25RR
    • Yak-25RRV
    • Yak-25RV
    • Yak-25RV-I
    • Yak-25RV-II
    • Yak-SM-6
  • 1952

    Yakovlev Yak-24 Sheet pending

    Variants (3)
    • Yak-24
    • Yak-24A
    • Yak-24U
  • 1953

    Yakovlev Yak-200 Sheet pending

    Variants (2)
    • Yak-200
    • Yak-210
  • 1958

    Yakovlev Yak-28 Sheet pending

    Variants (17)
    • Yak-129
    • Yak-28-64
    • Yak-28A
    • Yak-28B
    • Yak-28I
    • Yak-28L
    • Yak-28P
    • Yak-28PM
    • Yak-28PP
    • Yak-28R
    • Yak-28RL
    • Yak-28RR
    • Yak-28SR
    • Yak-28TARK
    • Yak-28U
    • Yak-28URP
    • Yak-28UVP
  • 1960

    Yakovlev Yak-30 (1960) Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Yak-30
  • 1963

    Yakovlev Yak-36 Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Yak-36
  • 1966

    Yakovlev Yak-40

    The Yakovlev Yak-40 (Як-40; NATO reporting name "Codling") was the world's first jet airliner designed specifically for local air routes: a straight-winged trijet with a T-tail and retractable tricycle gear, able to work from grass or unpaved strips shorter than 700 m without ground support. It answered an Aeroflot requirement to replace the Ilyushin Il-12 and Il-14 and the Lisunov Li-2 — the Soviet licence-built DC-3 — which still flew the regional network in the early 1960s. Much of that network could not take a demanding aeroplane: as Piotr Butowski records, of the 2,980 Soviet airfields suitable for small airliners a thousand had grass runways under 700 m, usable only by the 12-seat An-2 biplane or the four-seat Yak-12. Aleksandr Yakovlev's OKB-115 first examined turboprop layouts and even vertical take-off configurations with dedicated lift engines, before settling around 1964-1965 on a simple straight-winged trijet for twenty to twenty-five passengers. Power came from the new Ivchenko AI-25 turbofan developed at Zaporizhzhia, rated at 14.7 kN (3,300 lbf) each: two engines on short side pylons and a third buried in the rear fuselage, fed by a dorsal intake through an S-duct. An auxiliary power unit and integral ventral airstairs allowed the aircraft to turn round at airfields with no equipment at all. The first of five prototypes flew on 21 October 1966 and production began in 1967 at the Saratov Aviation Plant. Soviet type certification followed in 1968, and on 30 September of that year aircraft CCCP-87675 flew the first scheduled passenger service, from Moscow to Kostroma. The Yak-40 became the backbone of Aeroflot's local network: eleven aircraft in 1968, 232 by 1972 and 542 by 1975, with more than 43.5 million passengers carried by 1 January 1976 and links to 276 cities by 1980. The Yak-40 was the first Soviet-built airliner designed to Western airworthiness requirements and the first Soviet aircraft to obtain Italian and West German certificates. It was demonstrated in 75 countries and exported to some twenty of them, although the American campaign foundered on Cold War trade policy. Production ended at Saratov in 1981 after a little over a thousand aircraft, spawning a freight version (Yak-40K), a long list of military and laboratory conversions, and the later Yakovlev Yak-42. Long gone from mass scheduled service, the type survived mainly as a VIP and corporate transport — the "Russian bizjet" of the 1990s — and as a testbed: the SibNIA institute in Novosibirsk re-engined it with Honeywell TFE731 turbofans and used it as the basis of the composite-wing STR-40DT demonstrator, which first flew on 4 December 2018.

  • 1971

    Yakovlev Yak-38 Sheet pending

    Variants (4)
    • Yak-36M
    • Yak-38
    • Yak-38M
    • Yak-38U
  • 1975

    Yakovlev Yak-42

    The Yakovlev Yak-42 is a narrow-body trijet for mid-range routes and the first Soviet airliner powered by modern high-bypass turbofans. It first flew on 7 March 1975 and began scheduled service on 22 December 1980.

  • 1975

    Yakovlev Yak-50 (1975) Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Yak-50
  • 1981

    Yakovlev Yak-55 Sheet pending

    Variants (2)
    • Yak-55
    • Yak-55M
  • 1987

    Yakovlev Yak-141 Sheet pending

    Variants (2)
    • Yak-141
    • Yak-41
  • 1992

    Yakovlev Yak-112 Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Yak-112
  • 1993

    Yakovlev Yak-54 Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Yak-54
  • 1993

    Yakovlev Yak-58 Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Yak-58
  • 1996

    Yakovlev Yak-130 Sheet pending

    Variants (3)
    • Yak-130
    • Yak-130D
    • Yak-130M
  • 2016

    Yakovlev Yak-152 Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Yak-152
  • 2017

    Yakovlev MC-21 Sheet pending

    Variants (2)
    • MC-21-300
    • MC-21-310
  • —

    Yakovlev Yak-26 Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Yak-26
  • —

    Yakovlev Yak-100 Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Yak-100
  • —

    Yakovlev Yak-20 Sheet pending

    Variants (2)
    • Yak-20-1
    • Yak-20-2
  • —

    Yakovlev EG Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • EG
  • —

    Yakovlev Yak-8 Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Yak-8
  • —

    Yakovlev Ya-19 Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Ya-19
  • —

    Yakovlev AIR-5 Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • AIR-5
  • —

    Yakovlev AIR-11 Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • AIR-11
  • —

    Yakovlev AIR-9 Sheet pending

    Variants (2)
    • AIR-9
    • AIR-9bis
  • —

    Yakovlev Yak-10 Sheet pending

    Variants (5)
    • Yak-10
    • Yak-10G
    • Yak-10S
    • Yak-10V
    • Yak-13
  • —

    Yakovlev Yak-27 Sheet pending

    Variants (8)
    • Yak-121
    • Yak-27
    • Yak-27F
    • Yak-27K
    • Yak-27LSh
    • Yak-27R
    • Yak-27RN
    • Yak-27V
  • —

    Yakovlev Yak-6 Sheet pending

    Variants (3)
    • NBB
    • Yak-6
    • Yak-6M
  • —

    Yakovlev UT-1 Sheet pending

    Variants (7)
    • AIR-14
    • AIR-18
    • AIR-21
    • UT-1
    • UT-1B
    • UT-1E
    • UT-1 Floatplane
  • —

    Yakovlev Yak-17 Sheet pending

    Variants (3)
    • UTI Yak-17-RD10
    • Yak-17
    • Yak-17UTI
  • —

    Yakovlev UT-3 Sheet pending

    Variants (5)
    • AIR-17
    • UT-3 2MV-6 (2-seat)
    • UT-3 2MV-6 (2-seat GAZ-47)
    • UT-3 2MV-6 (3-seat)
    • UT-3 2MV-6A
  • —

    Yakovlev Yak-12 Sheet pending

    Variants (11)
    • Jak-12A
    • Jak-12M
    • Shenyang type 5
    • Yak-12
    • Yak-12A
    • Yak-12B
    • Yak-12GR
    • Yak-12M
    • Yak-12R
    • Yak-12S
    • Yak-12SKh
  • —

    Yakovlev Yak-14 Sheet pending

    Variants (3)
    • NK-14
    • Yak-14
    • Yak-14M
  • —

    Yakovlev UT-2 Sheet pending

    Variants (10)
    • AIR-10
    • UT-2
    • UT-2L
    • UT-2M
    • UT-2MV
    • UT-2N (SEN)
    • UT-2V
    • UT-2 with MV-4
    • VT-2
    • Ya-20
  • —

    Yakovlev Yak-2 Sheet pending

    Variants (8)
    • BB-22
    • BPB-22
    • I-29
    • R-12
    • Ya-22
    • Yak-2
    • Yak-2bis
    • Yak-2KABB
  • —

    Yakovlev Yak-32 Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Yak-32
  • —

    Yakovlev AIR-6 Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • AIR-6
  • —

    Yakovlev Yak-52 Sheet pending

    Variants (6)
    • Iak-52
    • Iak-52TW
    • Iak-52W
    • Yak-52
    • Yak-52B
    • Yak-52M
  • —

    Yakovlev Yak-18 Sheet pending

    Variants (8)
    • Hongzhuan-501
    • Nanchang CJ-5
    • Yak-18
    • Yak-18A
    • Yak-18P
    • Yak-18PM
    • Yak-18PS
    • Yak-18U
  • —

    Yakovlev Yak-53 Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Yak-53
  • —

    Yakovlev Pchela Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Pchela-1T
  • —

    Yakovlev AIR-12 Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • AIR-12
  • —

    Yakovlev Yak-18T Sheet pending

    Variants (1)
    • Yak-18T