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A.S. Yakovlev

Stalin, Voroshilov, and Yakovlev (at front), Khrushchev, and Voroshilov (back). Moscow, Tushino airfield, 1935.

Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev (Russian: Алекса́ндр Серге́евич Я́ковлев) (April 1, 1906 - August 22, 1989) was a Russian aeronautical engineer and airplane designer. He designed the Yakovlev military aircraft and founded the Yakovlev Design Bureau.

Yakovlev was a founder of Soviet aviation modeling, air gliding, and aviation sport. He built the AVF-10 glider in 1924 and ultralight aircraft AIR-1 in 1927. These were his very first aircraft used for sport and training.

He worked as a motor technician beginning in 1924, and then became a student of the Air Force Academy of RKKA (Red Army), named after Prof. N.E.Zhukovski (1927-1931). He was an engineer at an aviation plant in 1931, where his first design bureau of lightweight aviation was established in 1932. He became the main designer in 1935, then the chief designer (1956-1984) of aircraft for the Yakovlev Design Bureau.

He was a Vice-Minister of Aviation Industry between 1940-1946.

Unfortunately, while holding that position, Yakovlev played a major negative role in lives of many other soviet airplane designers. Many great projects were cancelled or postponed for been “irresponsible” or their authors been “saboteurs”. At the same time, the state officials tended to turn a blind eye to Yakovlev-designed planes when they were having technical issues. There is a lot of discussion about Yakovlev having big influence on Stalin and using it for lobbying his own needs and controlling his opponents. His tragic role in cancelling development of the most sophisticated soviet military airplane of the time – Polikarpov I-180 of Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov is well-known.

He was a correspondent-member of the USSR Academy of Science in 1943, and was awarded the Hero of Socialist Labor in both 1940 and 1957. In 1946 he was awarded the title "General-Colonel of Aviation". In 1976 he became academician of the USSR Academy of Science. Yakovlev retired August 21, 1984.

Yakovlev was awarded many medals and honors during his career.

• He was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1946-1989).
• Lenin Award (1972)
• Stalin/State Prize of the USSR (1941,1942, 1943, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1977)
• Gold Aviation medal of FAI
• Ten Orders of Lenin
• Order of the October Revolution
• Two Orders of the Red Banner
• Order of Suvorov of the 1st and the 2nd rank,
• Two "Patriotic War" Orders of the 1st rank
• Order of the Red Banner of Labour
• Order of the Red Star
• French Orders of Legion of Honor
• Officer's Cross

See Yakovlev (disambiguation) for other individuals with the same surname