Most Of The F-22ski Flies

The Strategy page ^ | 1/31/2010 | The Strategy Page

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

The latest Russian fighter design, the T-50, made its first flight on January 29th. Also called PAK FA (Prospective Aviation System of Frontline Aviation), or T-50, it’s a radical development of the Su-27/30/35 series of aircraft. The 47 minute test flight was done without the new engines designed for the T-50. Russia has always had problems with high performance jet engines, and those woes continue. "Evolving" an aircraft design, in this case, the Su-27, is a Russian custom. New models of a base design are given new names. The U.S. also does this, but keeps the original name. The Russian mods are often much more extensive, extending to the fuselage and basic architecture of the aircraft.

The T-50 is incorrectly touted as a Russian answer to the American F-22. It isn't. But the T-50 contains more features that Russia hopes will make the T-50 (earlier referred to as the Su-47) more competitive against the new American fighters (F-22 and F-35, which are wholly new, and much more expensive, designs). Russia wants to export the new fighter, while the U.S. won't (yet) export the F-22. When the T-50 project went dormant for years, it was believed the Su-35 or Su-37 would be pimped out (a whole lot) to be the official F-22 competitor. But the T-50 hasn't died, not yet anyway. So the Su-35 and Su-37 will continue as advanced models of the Su-27, and not be burdened with competing with the F-22 in the marketplace.

[AGreatPer]

Way, way over my head. But I love this stuff.
As long as the US keeps its edge.

[Steely Tom]

The 47 minute test flight was done without the new engines designed for the T-50. Russia has always had problems with high performance jet engines, and those woes continue. "Evolving" an aircraft design, in this case, the Su-27, is a Russian custom.

Yeah. It's customary for them to "evolve" their design at a rate that matches the rate they can steal the details of our design.

[piytar]

The Russians don’t have to compete with the F22. Zero has scrapped the program for all intents and purposes...

[Dan Middleton]

the T-50 (earlier referred to as the Su-47)

The Su-47 is a different design, the forward-swept wing Berkut tech demonstrator.

[miliantnutcase]

The F-22 is so far advanced it is priced accordingly. Instead we now have to go with a less deadly more versatile F-35 for the future. The F-35 is to the F-22 as the Virginia class sub is to the Seawolf- cheaper, modular but unfortunately not the “baddest mofo” out there.

[Constantine XI Palaeologus]

I always take Dunnigan's articles with a grain of salt, but this article may take the cake. Claiming that the PAK-FA/T-50 is a development of the Flanker (maybe in the sense that the YF-23 was a development of the F-15 in that the YF-23 was supposed to use the same cockpit) is ridiculous. Then he goes and states that the T-50 is the same as the Su-47 which is an even more ridiculous statement. To illustrate my statement, observe the two aircraft below:
PAK-FA/T-50

Su-47

Notice any differences?

[Constantine XI Palaeologus]

BTW, sonofstrangelove, I don’t mean for my post to be construed as being directed at you. I’m very appreciative of all the foreign-military related posts you make and always look forward to reading them and learning something new.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Thank you very much for the kind words. I am trying to keep up with the news.

[spetznaz]

I do not understand StrategyPage sometimes! They are a nice website, and they do put together a lot of articles in an easily accessible website, but sometimes they REALLY GET THINGS WRONG! Furthermore, when they get things wrong they really go off the deep end.

For instance, they are saying that this is an evolution of the Su-27/30/35. It is not ...clearly not, whether you look at appearance, functionality, systems, avionics, kinematics (e.g. the LERX) ...basically anything you want to use as a comparative factor.

Then they claim that it was to be called the SU-47. Coming from StrategyPage that is shocking, because they SHOULD know what the -47 was ...and what it wasn't.

Then they talk about how the plane is not stealthy because it would hang weapons on hardpoints on the wings. Well, I guess StrategyPage overlooked the weapons bays ...I guess they don't count for them.

Anyways, SP is a great site, and if any of the website owners is a FReeper ....GREAT WORK. However, sometimes they really get things wrong.