Yak-38 Forger.

This is coolbert:

Finally and in conclusion that series of blog entries extracts with my comments from an article as originally seen at the Hush-Kit Internet web site.

"The 11 worst Soviet aircraft"

Yak-38 Flogger. VTOL.

"Expectations of the Yak-38 should have been low. It was intended more as a concept-proving vehicle than a frontline aircraft in its own right."

"The problem was the Yak-38’s lack of combat capability. Yes, it could take off and land vertically, and transition between vertical to horizontal flight, a significant achievement. Unfortunately, its payload was derisory and its range pathetic, its air-to-air capability virtually non-existent. One reason was the Forger’s VTOL concept – while the Harrier had a single engine and could use all its thrust for horizontal or vertical flight, the Yak-38 had to lug two lift engines, dead weight at all other times than in vertical flight. In hot and high conditions (such as the combat evaluation it endured in Afghanistan), the Forger could carry less than 500lb of munitions. As a proof of concept vehicle, the Yak-38 only managed to ‘prove’ that VTOL combat aircraft were impractical"

Nice nighttime image of a Forger on the flight deck of a Soviet aircraft carrier [Kiev class?].

That combat capability of all vertical-take-off and landing [VTOL] warplanes strictly compromised by fuel consumption. VTOL consumes a lot of fuel!! That ratio of ordnance as compared to fuel limited by the maximum take-off weight of the airplane. An inverse ratio existing.

The more the fuel the less the ordnance. The greater the ordnance the less the fuel.

Combat capability compromised in all instances. AS IT WAS WITH FLOGGER!

coolbert.