Yakovlev Yak-36 Photographed at Monino Air Force Museum on 24 August 2009. NATO reporting name "Freehand".
The large nose probe houses one of this VTOL aircraft's reaction control jets.
4 airframes were built, 2 for flight testing, this being the first of them.
Initial tethered flights were in 1963, with the first untethered flight using a conventional takeoff on 27 July 1964, and the first full VTOL flight on 24 March 1966. Yuri Garnayev performed the initial flights, though he was hospitalized after an accident in a helicopter, and most of the flights, including the first full VTOL flight, were performed by Valentin Mukhin
The aircraft had two vectored thrust engines mounted side-by-side in the forward fuselage. The exhaust exited through vectoring nozzles in the center of gravity which could be moved through about 90°.
Picture added on 06 January 2010 at 15:41
