Editing Yakovlev Yak-44 (section)

==Design and development==
In the late 1970s, the [[Soviet Navy]] adopted a plan to build large aircraft carriers capable of operating conventional aircraft rather than the [[VSTOL]] [[Yakovlev Yak-38]]s operated by the existing [[Kiev class aircraft carrier]]s. These new carriers required a shipborne [[airborne early warning]] (AEW) aircraft to be effective, and the Yakovlev [[design bureau]] was instructed to develop such an aircraft in 1979.<ref name="Conway p372">Gardiner and Chumbley 1995, p. 372.</ref><ref name="OKB p347">Gordon, Komissarov and Komissarov 2005, p. 347.</ref> While the AEW would be the primary role for the aircraft, it was also planned to develop versions to serve in the [[anti-submarine warfare]] (ASW) and [[carrier on-board delivery]] (COD) roles.<ref name="OKB p347"/><ref name="GunYak p201">Gunston and Gordon 1997, p. 201.</ref>

The basic layout and size of the final Yak-44E design was similar to that of the [[Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye|Grumman E-2C]] which operated in the same role from American aircraft carriers, being a twin-engined high-wing [[monoplane]] with a rotating [[radar dome]] ([[rotodome]]) above the aircraft's fuselage. The Yak-44 was designed to carry much more fuel, and was therefore far heavier.<ref name="OKB p347"/><ref name="GunYak p201"/> The engines were to be two [[Progress D-27]] [[propfan]]s rated at 14,000&nbsp;ehp (10,290&nbsp;kW) each, driving [[contra-rotating propellers]]. The crew of five were to be accommodated in a pressurized fuselage, while the aircraft's rotodome, carrying a [[Vega Radio Engineering Corporation|NPO Vega]] pulse-doppler radar could be retracted to reduce the aircraft's height when stowed below decks in the carrier's [[hangar]]. The aircraft's wings also [[Folding wing|folded]] upwards, while a [[twin tail]] was fitted.<ref name="OKB p347"/><ref name="GunYak p201-2">Gunston and Gordon 1997, pp. 201–202.</ref>

The aircraft was stressed to allow [[Aircraft catapult|catapult]] launching and [[Arresting gear|arrested]] landings, but was also capable of operating from the [[Flight Deck#Ski-jump ramp|ski-jump ramps]] of the [[Admiral Kuznetsov class aircraft carrier|Project 1143.5]] carriers (later to become known as the ''Admiral Kuznetsov'' class).<ref name="OKB p348">Gordon, Komissarov and Komissarov 2005, p. 348.</ref>

A detailed full-size [[mockup]] was completed in 1991, and approved with minor changes by the [[Soviet Naval Aviation]] (A-VMF). The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 resulted in the program being delayed, with the catapult-equipped [[Soviet aircraft carrier Ulyanovsk|''Ulyanovsk'']] being cancelled and scrapped, and the second ''Admiral Kuznetsov'' class carrier, the [[Chinese aircraft carrier ex-Varyag|''Varyag'']], being left incomplete. The Yak-44 program was abandoned by the [[Russian Navy]] in 1993.<ref name="OKB p348"/><ref name="GunYak p202">Gunston and Gordon 1997, p. 202.</ref><ref name="Brasseys96 p180-1"/>