/AKM/ - Guns, weapons and the art of war.

>>4542
Huh? I just wanna discuss planes, man.

>>4544
Don't respond, he's a retard.

Also fuck I was going to make a solid OP about Soviet aircraft with sources and other shit and here you go stealing my thunder. Damn you pirate anon!

>>4541
>3rd pic
Isn't that a prototype that wasn't produced? I forgot its name, but it looks cool.

>>4547
Not OP but you are correct. That's a Yak-30, a prototype fighter.

I always had a soft spot for Yakovlev’s aircraft. The Yak-30 that i included in the OP was a prototype (as mentioned by another anon above) that they tried to complete with the famous MiG-15. The Soviet military preferred the Mig-15 due to its superior performance at intercepting bombers. I really like the design of the Yak-38 and Yak-141 as well. They were quite innovative VTOLs, with the VTOL engines being inside fuselage. The a significant amount of the Yak-141’s design would later be copied by the Americans for use in the F-35 (though they somehow managed to make a worse plane then the late Cold War Yak-141).

>>4550
>they somehow managed to make a worse plane then the late Cold War Yak-141
Tech Bloat.

I also loved a lot of Yak planes. I always wished the '41 had gotten into service.

>>4550
Many people say the Yak-38 was a bad plane, but I'm pretty certain early Harriers had their own lot of issues as well. Ultimately, the shortcomings of the Yak-38 were identified and were fixed by the Yak-41M which sadly remained a prototype/demonstrator.
Personally, I don't think it's a "bad" plane since it was the first attack VTOL put into service by the USSR, a test to see how viable the concept of carrier-borne attack VTOLs was and how to expand on it. Also, I think it looks cute lol

>>4555
>I always wished the '41 had gotten into service.
If it got into service, we could've got a further upgrade in the form of the Yak-43M, which is basically a stealthier Yak-41M.

>>4559
>Many people say the Yak-38 was a bad plane
It's my time to shine again! I repost my old Dispatch on the subject:
https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1195766
Long story short the Yak-38 was not worse than the Harrier.
>I don't think it's a "bad" plane since it was the first attack VTOL put into service by the USSR, a test to see how viable the concept of carrier-borne attack VTOLs was and how to expand on it
Like every VTOL of the first/second generation, so when burgers start talking crap, they kinda omit that fact.
>we could've got a further upgrade in the form of the Yak-43M, which is basically a stealthier Yak-41M.
Ah yes, and the Yak-201. Prior to going down Paralay had a lot of good research documents on all of those aircraft.
https://avia.pro/blog/yak-201

>>4560
Paralay went down? That's a shame.
And thank you for reposting the Yak-38 post, it's a good essay!

>>4560
The fact all of you anons are discussing the Yak-38 brings a tear to my non eyepatched eye, also nation states- holy shit, I haven’t seen that in years, since like freshman year in high school.

>>4541
foxbat is coolest looking plane ever

>>4561
The Paralay forums are still sort of up, but the original paralay.com is down. You're welcome and thanks!
Example: https://web.archive.org/web/20170711144318/http://paralay.com/lmfs.html

>>4562
Yeah I forgot about it myself until just now, lol.

>>4563
Powerful machines, they're pretty huge too.

Continuing on the topic of Yakovlev aircraft, the Yak-24 was a bit of an anomaly since it was a helicopter and not a plane, contrary to almost every other Yakovlev aircraft. It was also the only Soviet helicopter to be produced that featured a tandem rotor design, IIRC (not counting the Mil V-12 as it was a prototype)
It tends to be overshadowed by other designs such as the Mi-2, Mi-4 or Mi-8, though, and I don't think it was as influential as those. However, I appreciate its simple design: it's basically a long box with rotorblades and stabilizers.

>>4568
Pics 1 & 2 are MiG-31s, pic 3 is a MiG-25. A sexeh beast indeed.
The MiG-25 is pretty fucking awesome. It can reach about Mach 3 under the right conditions, it has an extremely powerful radar that is also resilient to ECM and EMPs, and it does all of that by using engines from a cancelled cruise missile project, vacuum tubes, and being made out of steel.
The MiG-31 modernizes the whole thing with upgraded electronics and perhaps better aerodynamics, although it's a little bit slower (but still really fast).

On a related note, the Mikoyan Ye-150/152 (picrel) used the same engine as the MiG-25 and was also meant to be an interceptor.

>>4568
I remember reading about how Soviet MiG-25/31 pilots would lock onto SR-71s but they would run away before they could fire. Super cool planes.

I know the MiG 1.44’s first flight was post soviet but it was in design in 86’ so close enough.

>>4570
The MiG-25 could lock-on but the R-40 did have some trouble chasing, so MiG-25s would approach from the front. The MiG-35s R-33s and PESA RADAR did not have this issue and easily forced SR-71s out of Soviet air-space. The SR-71 was only good at being high-speed, it turned like a brick, ate fuel like crazy, the engines constantly broke-down and leaked.