UNAF Close Air Support VTOL Aircraft YAGR-3B

Introduced in Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, the YAGR-3B flies on a pair of wing-mounted thrusters that swivel between lift and cruise, letting it rise straight off a pad and then push into level flight. The fuselage is narrow and angular, carrying two similarly sized forward cockpits, one set high on the spine and the other slung underneath. Retractable landing gear stows in a pod on either side of the belly, with a third gear set housed further back in the hull, and pods housing machine guns and missiles hang beneath the wings.

The airframe covers several jobs: ground attack, shuttling important passengers, and heavy lifting, the last achieved by lashing multiple YAGR-3Bs together with cables to hoist outsized loads. None of this counts for much against Angels. When the Fourth Angel marches on Tokyo-3, a full squadron harasses it without effect; the creature spears one aircraft outright and stamps on another it has swatted down, and the survivors scatter ahead of the N2 mine strike, later returning alongside V-22 Ospreys to watch the wounded Angel regenerate. In Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance, UN machines holding the old Odawara defense line briefly engage the Tenth Angel before it smashes through toward the city.

The 3.333 recut of the third film retroactively adds a WILLE-liveried YAGR-3B, the craft Ryoji Kaji uses in his effort to stop Third Impact. Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon A Time echoes that addition, placing the same WILLE-colored aircraft in the background of the flashback where Kaji parts from Misato and Ritsuko.

NERV, the United Nations, and Japan's Strategic Self Defense Force all operate the type across the film series, with WILLE inheriting at least one airframe. After the Near Third Impact the design gives way to its successor, the YAGR-N101.