Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 14:11-17:04

Why the Yak-38 faced a harder problem than a conventional carrier aircraft

V/STOL shifts launch, lift, and control demands into the aircraft, leaving the Yak-38 to solve a harder problem with far less computing power than the F-35.

Aircraft CarriersCATOBARF-35 Lightning IINaval AviationSea HarrierSoviet NavyV/STOL AircraftYak 38 Forger
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Question

If the Sea Harrier worked, why is the Yak-38 not proof that Soviet VSTOL was equally practical?

Short answer

V/STOL is inherently demanding, and the Yak-38 had to solve it with far less mature control technology inside a cruiser-carrier hybrid.

Notes

V/STOL is at least as demanding as CATOBAR aviation. A conventional carrier can place its catapult and arrested-recovery machinery in a ship with far more space and tonnage, while a V/STOL aircraft must carry the lift and control burden itself and fight gravity directly. The Yak-38 did so with very small wings inside a Soviet cruiser-carrier hybrid that combined several difficult design problems. The comparable control method became practical only with the far greater computing power available to the F-35. The Yak-38 therefore shows how hard V/STOL was with its available technology, while the Harrier and Sea Harrier show that the broad concept could work.