Quote:
Originally Posted by entropy
The Russian VTOl Yaks, I've heard they are horrible. Is this true?
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The Yak-38??
The “FORGER” had great difficulty in even getting of the deck when the carrier was sailing in tropical latitudes. Eventually some sort of oxygen boost system was lashed up to help get it’s ass of the ground. Even in the Soviet Union’s own Black Sea there were problems making a take-off in the Summer months! In any case the Yak-38 had a very poor payload/range performance.
The Yak-38 had very poor Avionics – I believe they were derived from the MiG-21.
Every time I read about the FORGER the only item that receives any kind of praise seems to be the automated crew escape system (which was indeed quiet sophisticated), which can hardly be reassuring to the pilot, if you think about it...
Still though, the Yakovlev design bureau should have gained a lot of experience in this type of technology, the Yak-41 was said to be a lot better.