Yakovlev Yak-44
The Yakovlev Yak-44 was a planned carrier-based airborne early warning and control aircraft for the Soviet Navy. It would be a twin-turboprop plane, similar in role to the US E-2 Hawkeye, designed to operate from the new Ulyanovsk-class aircraft carriers. The project also envisioned versions for anti-submarine warfare and carrier onboard delivery. The Yak-44 would use two Progress D-27 propfans with contra-rotating props, carry five crew in a pressurized fuselage, and have a retractable rotodome with NPO Vega radar. Its wings would fold, and it had a twin tail; it could be launched by a catapult or from ski-jump ramps. A full-size mockup was completed in 1991 and approved, but after the Soviet Union collapsed the program was delayed and canceled in 1993, as the carriers it was meant for were canceled or left incomplete.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 05:05 (CET).