A not-so-hidden gem. The graphic for the afterburner on the YAK-141 is missing in ATF Gold and Fighters Anthology, but it does exist in USNF'97. I discovered that today as my autistic son, who insisted on having all three on his vintage computer, was playing it today.

I'll try to get that into the Playset. Hopefully for the F-35 as well.

Update: I moved the Y141.SH and .Pic from USNF97 directly to FA no problem. Unfortunately, I am unable to reproduce the same result for Hawke's F-35 that I use.

You know I don't think I ever noticed that, great find.
Speaking of the Yak-41, I have Yefim Gordon's book in PDF on it. I have a few of his on PDF and some hard copy (Su-24, S-37/MiG MFI) - shout if anyone wants, they're really detailed.



Now why I'm bringing this up right? So I was looking into the Yak-41 and wondering why it had so little payload for so much thrust.
Couldn't find a straight answer but I think it just had to do with Soviet engineering or perhaps priorities.

So I looked at what a Yak-41 could do compared to the AV-8.
Not shabby. I also wanted another two pylons so I figured a modest increase to the wingspan would fit a pair of rails for Archers or Aphids.

Came out to a fun little what-if project I made.
I might throw it into FA one day as an Easter Egg along with my Novi Avion realized and my "What if the MiG-25 could sustain Mach 3 and carry the payload of the MiG-31?"

Those last two you can see here (eventually the Yak will be there too) that I make for a worldbuilding group.


https://anterra.miraheze.org/wiki/ZuB-12_Stervyatnik

https://anterra.miraheze.org/wiki/ZuB-17_Ter%27er

Well is the shape identical otherwise to the Yak 141 in FA? If so it is an easy fix to correct it by adding in Hawke's changes. I can do that via a comparison...

The forger has weak engines... It has multiple dedicated lift engines up front for vertical lift and they are dead weight when flying horizontally, so they limit what the aircraft can carry as they provide no thrust on forward flight...

Hawke made the wing area trapezoidal. Also, the y141.pic in '97 does not match up with the y141.pic used in FA.

I guess what would need done is to take the Y141.SH from usnf97 and give it the trapezoidal wing. Then just recolor Y141.PIC.

Hard agree on the Yak-38 it's garbage.

Yak-41 though didn't hurt for thrust.
- 2x lift turbojets giving them 9,400 lbf each
- main turbofan giving them 30,860 lbf of thrust in VTO mode
- 49,660 lbf when you add it all up - imagine wasting all that thrust?

Supposedly, LockMart was working with Yakovlev post USSR breakup to try to help them out - what with the JSF program going on ahead - and make the Yak-41 an aircraft it could be but I believe that fell apart probably because everyone was broke at that point in Russia.

Likely it would have bumped up the payload.
Just in comparison to what the AV-8B carries payload vs. thrust, the Yak-41 might as well just be an airshow plane.

I was really asking is the detailing of the shape the exact same? The older shapes usually are more limited, but not always. Like the AWACs with the rotating dish vs the fixed disk in FA....

Yak 41/141 still has the same problems of the Forger. It had dead weight of the 2 dedicated lift engines forward that do not contribute to forward flight and very small wings... Limits weapons load.

To me, the '97 Yak-141 looks exactly like the FA Yak-141 (except for the afterburner).

I currently have the '97 Yak-141 undamaged shape/pic and the FA Yak-141 damaged shapes/pics. When the aircraft goes from undamaged to destroyed, it looks like the same aircraft (as in you cannot tell whether it was a '97 or an FA aircraft).