Yakovlev Yak-42

The Yakovlev Yak-42, with the NATO reporting name Clobber, is a 100 to 120 seat three-engined mid-range passenger jet developed in the mid-1970s to replace the obsolete Tupolev Tu-134. It was the first airliner built in the Soviet Union with modern high-bypass turbofan engines, three Lotarev D-36 units. The first of three prototypes made its maiden flight on 7 March 1975, the first production aircraft was completed on 28 April 1978, and the first scheduled passenger flight, on the Aeroflot route from Moscow to Krasnodar, took place on 22 December 1980. Production was slow at first, with only ten flown by mid-1981. A longer-range Yak-42D appeared from 1991 and brought a few export sales, and by early 1995 a total of 185 had been produced.