aircraft designer noted for his series of Yak aircraft, most of them fighters used by the Soviet Union in World War II.

After graduation from the Air Force Engineering Academy in 1931, Yakovlev immediately began to design aircraft, both piston- and jet-engined. Just before World War II he designed the Yak-1 fighter. His first jet fighter, the Yak-15, was designed in 1945, followed by the Yak-17 and Yak-23. His successful twin-engined “flying wagon” helicopter (the Yak-24) set several world records. In the years after World War II, as the MiG design increased in popularity, Yakovlev began to design civilian aircraft, especially sport planes.

A member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1938, Yakovlev served from 1940 to 1956 as a deputy minister of the aircraft industry and as chief designer thereafter. He was awarded the Stalin Prize seven times and the Order of Lenin eight times and became a member of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences in 1976.