A.S. Yakovlev Design Bureau JSC is a Russian aircraft designer and manufacturer (design office prefix Yak). It was formed in 1934 under designer Alexander Sergeevich Yakovlev as OKB-115 (the design bureau has its own production base at the facility №115), but the birthday is considered on 12 May 1927, the day of maiden flight of the AIR-1 aircraft developed within the Department of Light Aircraft of GUAP (Head Agency of Aviation Industry) under the supervision of A.S. Yakovlev. During World War II Yakovlev designed and produced a famed line of fighter aircraft. It was merged into the Yak Aviation Company with Smolensk Aviation Plant Joint Stock Company in March 1992, although the two companies continued to be operated separately. It later underwent privatization and became Yak Aircraft Corporation. The Russian government is planning to merge the holding company with Mikoyan, Ilyushin, Irkut, Sukhoi and Tupolev as a new company named United Aircraft Building Corporation.[1] The firm is the designer of the Pchela (Russian: Пчела, "bee", drone reconnaissance aircraft), and is perhaps best known for its highly successful line of World War II-era piston-engined fighter aircraft. The name "Yakovlev" is used commonly in the West, but in Russia it is always abbreviated as Yak (Russian: Як) as a part of aircraft name. The German transliteration, often used by the Russians, Poles, and others as well, is Jak.
