In April 1946, the Council of People's Commissars ordered several design bureaux (OKB - Opytnoye Konstruktorskoye Buro), included that of Alexander Yakovlev, to develop a single-seat jet fighter to be equipped with a single Lyulka TR-1 turbojet engine.
The Yak-19 had an flattened oval-shaped, metal semi-monocoque fuselage with the single-seat cockpit and its teardrop-shaped canopy positioned just forward of the axial-flow RD-10F turbojet engine.