Following his design of the earlier AIR-1 and AIR-2, Yakovlev was taken on as a student at the Nikolai Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy, where he designed the AIR-3, which was similar to the earlier AIR-2 biplane but with a strut-braced high parasol wing.
Setelah desain dari sebelumnya AIR-1 dan AIR-2, Yakovlev diambil sebagai mahasiswa di Akademi Teknik Angkatan Udara Nikolai Zhukovsky, di mana ia merancang AIR-3, yang mirip dengan sebelumnya biplane AIR-2 tetapi dengan sayap-sayap tinggi.