Yak-42: The Soviet Airliner that Failed

The Yak-42 is a regional jet airliner created in the USSR in the late 1970s. The aircraft was created in the Yakovlev Design Bureau based on the layout of the successful Yak-40. Possessing a high level of efficiency, comfort and acceptable flight performance, the Yak-42 was supposed to renew the fleet of regional aircraft, replacing the Il-18 and Tu-134. However, a series of aviation incidents and disasters delayed its entry into the niche of mass air travel. Further modernization again made it a successful airliner, but by the beginning of the 1990s, the collapse of the USSR and the fall of the air transportation market followed, which flattened demand. Thus, a perfectly effective regional airliner could not take its place under the Sun and, failing to replace the old Soviet aircraft, gave way to the new Russian SSJ 100. A total of 187 airliners were produced. Production is now discontinued. A small number of aircraft still fly in the fleets of several smaller airlines and government departments.