Yakovlev's V/STOL Fighters Yak 36, Yak 38, Yak 41 and Yak 141

For a long while, talk of vertical take-off and landing jet fighters meant only the world-beating Harrier. Then the Russian Yakovlev design bureau announced it was bringing its supersonic VTOL fighter, the Yak-141 "Freestyle" to the Farnborough air show in 1992. After all the rumours and scepticism, the world knew that Russian technology was a thing to wonder at. Yakovlev has been in the VTOL business since the early 1960s when they flew the experimental Yak-36 "Freehand" prototype. This was followed by the Yak-38 "Forger" which surprised the world by being deployed on the Soviet carrier "Kiev" from 1975. The story of Russia's programme to achieve a supersonic VTOL jet fighter can now be told, from the earliest experiments through to the astonishing "Freehand" and on to the agreement between Yakovlev and Lockheed Martin to help produce JAST, the United States's next generation tactical fighter. Using material never before seen in the West, this book tells the story of a programme that has to an extent, until recently, been shrouded in secrecy.