The aircraft was essentially a stretched version of the Yakovlev Yak-30 (1948), with a more powerful engine and greater wing sweep.

[1] On February 21, 1949 a Sovmin order requested the Yakovlev OKB to design a lightweight, radar-equipped, all-weather and night interceptor capable of Mach 0.97 at 4,000 m (13,000 ft).

This engine was itself a Soviet copy of the British Rolls-Royce Nene centrifugal turbojet initially known as the RD-45.

Ultimately, none of the newly developed aircraft was selected, and an upgraded MiG-17 was eventually employed.

Yakolev later used the velosipednoye landing gear in the Yak-140 fighter and the Yak-120, and later in the Yak-25 and Yak-28 where it proved highly successful.