Yakovlev Yak-201

The Yakovlev Yak-201 was a planned Russian vertical takeoff and landing stealth fighter and interceptor for the Russian Navy, drawn up as the follow-up to the Yak-141 and Yak-43. Engineers of the Yakovlev Design Bureau began the design on their own initiative in the mid-1990s so that Russian carriers could operate a modern VTOL aircraft. It was offered to the customer in 1996 and 1997 but found no taker, mainly for lack of money and because the Russian Ministry of Defense had not settled on its requirement. No full-size mock-up and no prototype was ever built. The design called for one pilot, a single engine with a vectorable nozzle and a mechanically driven lift fan behind the cockpit, an internal weapon bay, a GSh-301 cannon, and an expected speed of 1,250 km/h near the ground and 1,800 km/h at altitude, with stealth shaping that avoided right angles.