The global health issue has completely changed the way we travel, and airlines know this best. Air travel demand has collapsed as more countries entered a lockdown, and airlines are still struggling to find a way to convince people it’s still safe to board a plane despite the pandemic.
Is Russia’s Yak-130 the World’s Most Heavily-Armed Light Attack Jet?
It manages to punch well above its weight.
Here s What You Need to Remember: The Yak-130’s versatility and cost-effectiveness made it an export hit across the post-Soviet sphere and developing world, with dozens of orders being placed by Myanmar, Belarus, Algeria, and Bangladesh.
The Yak-130 is a versatile and formidable trainer aircraft that manages to punch above its weight, extending into carrier-based, reconnaissance, and even strike roles.
History:
As with many of the military projects that survived the Soviet collapse, the Yak-130 has a tortured and winding development history. In the 1980s, the Soviet government launched a procurement competition to phase out its aging fleet of Czech Aero L-29 and L-39 trainers. Of the five manufacturers that initially submitted their designs, only the Mikoyan MiG-AT and Yakovlev Yak-UTS remained by 1991. Yakovlev finalized its concept demonstrator’s design
The bomber is armed with cruise missiles and will serve long into the future.
The modernized Tu-160M strategic bomber is on the verge of entering service in Russia’s Air Force, bringing a slew of practical updates to the established Tu-160 “Blackjack” design formula.
The 1980’s Tu-160 Blackjack set no shortage of design records over the course of its storied career, earning the monikers of fastest, largest, and heaviest bomber all at once. But the past four decades have taken their toll on the Soviet-era bomber, which is increasingly showing its age in the avionics department as well as in several performance categories.
MIAMI – A joint venture to build a supersonic passenger aircraft will be set up by Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) and Emirati State-owned investment company Mubadala, Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said on Sunday.
Previously, the Russian company attempted to make a passenger aircraft based on the Tupolev Tu-160, but later rejected the proposal, choosing to develop a new supersonic aircraft from the ground up.
The Tupolev Tu-160 in 2010. Photo: Pavel Adzhigildaev, CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL 1.2, via Wikimedia Commons
The Russian company previously tried making a passenger aircraft based on the Tupolev Tu-160, but later rejected the idea, opting to design a new plane from scratch.