Yakovlev Yak-130 (Яковлев Як-130) is a Russian two-seat subsonic combat trainer, used for the basic and advanced training of military pilots and able to carry up to 3,000 kg of weapons as a light strike aircraft.[1] It was designed by the Yakovlev bureau in Moscow, first in partnership with the Italian company Aermacchi, whose own version of the design became the M-346 Master.[1][12] The first Yak-130 in production configuration, and the first production batch for the Russian Air Force, were built in Nizhny Novgorod at the Sokol Aircraft Plant (авиазавод «Сокол»), a factory that had specialised in MiG fighters; later production moved to Irkutsk in Siberia.[1][2][10] By 2019 more than a hundred Yak-130s were in Russian service and five foreign countries had ordered the type.[13]

Nizhny Novgorod, one of Russia's largest cities, stands on the Volga where the Oka flows into it, about 400 km east of Moscow; from 1932 to 1990 it was called Gorky. Its aircraft plant was chosen to build the Yak-130 as early as 1995, joined the programme in 1996, flew the first production-standard aircraft from its own airfield in 2004 and delivered the first Yak-130s to the Russian Air Force in 2009–2011.[2][3][1][10]

A Russian–Italian trainer

The Yakovlev bureau began work on a new trainer for the Russian Air Force in the early 1990s. Its concept, formed in 1993, was approved by the Defence Ministry and recommended for full development on a competitive basis. With little state money available, Yakovlev joined forces with Aermacchi of Italy; the cooperation lasted from 1993 to 1999.[1] The aircraft was presented in Moscow on 29 May 1995; its rival, the MiG-AT of the Mikoyan bureau, had been shown ten days earlier. At the time the aircraft was being developed together with Aermacchi and with Ukrainian engine makers.[2] The Yak-130D demonstrator first flew on 25 April 1996 from the Gromov Flight Research Institute airfield, flown by Yakovlev's test pilot Andrei Sinitsyn.[1]

The partners later disagreed over how to adapt the jointly designed aircraft to the needs of Western customers. In July 2000 Aermacchi left the joint project, buying the technical documentation of the Yak/AEM-130 for 77 million US dollars; the Italian company built its own trainer on that basis, the M-346 Master, which first flew on 15 July 2004, while the money allowed Yakovlev to continue work on its own aircraft, the Yak-130.[12] On 16 April 2002 the Yak-130 won the Russian Defence Ministry's competition for a new trainer.[1]

The Yak-130 is a mid-wing monoplane powered by two AI-222-25 turbofans of 2,500 kgf each. Its wing root extensions and air intake layout allow controlled flight at angles of attack of up to 35 degrees, and doors close the intakes while the aircraft moves on the ground, keeping debris out of the engines, so that it can operate from unpaved airfields. Each cockpit has three multifunction displays; the fully digital fly-by-wire control system can be reprogrammed to change the aircraft's stability and handling, so that it can imitate other aircraft. The maximum speed is 1,060 km/h, the service ceiling 12,500 m, and nine hardpoints carry up to 3,000 kg of weapons.[1][4] The Sokol plant advertised it as a trainer able to prepare pilots for any fighter, from the Su-30 and MiG-29 to the F-16, Rafale, Typhoon and F-35.[4]

Built in Nizhny Novgorod

When the aircraft was presented in May 1995, the Yakovlev bureau already named its future producer: series production was to be taken on by the Sokol aircraft plant in Nizhny Novgorod, which had never worked with the Yakovlev bureau before and specialised in MiG fighters. The Russian Air Force was then speaking of buying 200 Yak-130s.[2] In 1996 the plant started a joint programme with the Yakovlev bureau to develop the aircraft.[3]

Sokol had its own link with the Italian partner. From 1998 it built airframe assemblies — fuselages, wings and tail units — for the Aermacchi SF-260 aircraft: it adapted the Italian design documentation to its own production, made a complete set of some 1,800 tools, had its specialists trained at Aermacchi, brought its quality system into line with the ISO 9000 standards, and received 23 qualification certificates from Aermacchi.[11]

The Yak-130 production line at Sokol was launched in May 2003.[5] On 30 April 2004 the Yakovlev bureau's senior test pilot Roman Taskaev, a Hero of Russia, took into the air the first Yak-130 in production configuration, built at Sokol; the flight was made from the plant's own airfield.[1][3] In 2005 the Defence Ministry ordered a first batch of twelve aircraft, all to be built in Nizhny Novgorod.[6][5]

The aircraft that the Air Force would show as its first production Yak-130 made its first flight on 19 May 2009, flown by Sokol's test pilot Sergei Kara and by Taskaev.[7] Kara, born in Gorky in 1965, had been a test pilot at the plant since 1991 and flew the MiG-21, MiG-29, MiG-31 and Yak-130 among some 28 aircraft types.[14] In late July 2009 Sokol delivered the first Yak-130 to the Air Force. On 13 August, during the plant's celebration of Air Fleet Day, a Yak-130 flown by Kara and Andrei Pechenkin made several passes over the factory square and, as soon as the celebration was over, flew on to the MAKS-2009 air show at Zhukovsky near Moscow, where the Air Force displayed its first production Yak-130.[5][7][6] In 2009 the state trials were completed, and from February 2010 the Yak-130 was in service with the Russian Air Force; on 18 February 2010 an aircraft left the Sokol airfield for the Defence Ministry's training centre at Lipetsk.[1][8]

Deliveries slowed in 2010, when the plant's contract was not fulfilled because of a lack of funding from the Defence Ministry and the long work of the state commission.[9] In June 2011 the last batch of aircraft left the plant, completing the contract signed in 2005.[10]

From Nizhny Novgorod to Irkutsk

In 2006 the Irkutsk Aviation Plant joined the production of the Yak-130, building it with fully digital technologies, and it later became the sole supplier of new aircraft.[1] In 2009 the first export Yak-130, built for the Algerian Air Force, made its maiden flight at Irkutsk; Algeria had ordered sixteen aircraft in 2006. In Nizhny Novgorod digital methods were used only for manufacturing some parts and assemblies, while the Irkutsk plant said it could roll out sixty trainers a year.[6] From 2011 the Irkut corporation exported the Yak-130, and the whole programme — further development, series production and sales — passed to it.[1]

In the Russian Air Force the Yak-130 was intended to replace the ageing Czechoslovak-built L-39 trainers of the Soviet era.[6] By January 2019 Laos had received its first Yak-130s, becoming the fifth export customer; by then more than a hundred Yak-130s were in service with the Russian Aerospace Forces, and sixty had been ordered by foreign customers.[13]

See also

Sources

  1. United Aircraft Corporation — "Yak-130", official model range page: programme status and characteristics (in Russian) (archive)
  2. Kommersant — "Presentation of the Yak-130: Russian aircraft begin the fight for customers", No. 99, 31 May 1995 (in Russian)
  3. Nizhny Novgorod Aircraft Building Plant Sokol — "Our history", official website of the plant, 2004 (in English)
  4. Nizhny Novgorod Aircraft Building Plant Sokol — "Combat trainer Yak-130", official website of the plant, 2004 (in English)
  5. RIA Novosti — "Sokol starts deliveries of Yak-130 combat trainers to Russian AF", 13 August 2009, reprinted by GlobalSecurity.org (archive)
  6. Air Transport Observer (ATO.ru) — Maxim Pyadushkin, "Air Force shows first Yak-130", 12 October 2009 (archive)
  7. OAO Nizhny Novgorod Aircraft Building Plant Sokol — press release on the Yak-130 at MAKS-2009, August 2009 (in Russian, DOC)
  8. OAO Nizhny Novgorod Aircraft Building Plant Sokol — "OAO NAZ Sokol has handed over a Yak-130 to the Russian Air Force", press release, February 2010 (in Russian, DOC)
  9. OAO Nizhny Novgorod Aircraft Building Plant Sokol — Annual report for 2010 (in Russian, PDF)
  10. OAO Nizhny Novgorod Aircraft Building Plant Sokol — Annual report for 2011 (in Russian, PDF)
  11. OAO Nizhny Novgorod Aircraft Building Plant Sokol — note on cooperation with Aermacchi S.p.A., official website of the plant, 2004 (in Russian, DOC)
  12. Afterburner — "Leonardo/Alenia Aermacchi M346 Master", 19 September 2023 (archive)
  13. Aviation International News — Vladimir Karnozov, "Laos Receives Yak-130 Combat Jet Trainers", 21 January 2019 (archive)
  14. testpilot.ru — "Kara Sergei Ivanovich", Honoured Test Pilot of the Russian Federation (in Russian) (archive)