Posted on 02/11/2010 12:06:33 AM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
On 29 January 2010, the Sukhoi PAK-FA (Perspektivnyi Aviatsionnyi Kompleks Frontovoi Aviatsy, literally "Future Front line Aircraft System"), which could variously be described as a technology demonstrator, the first prototype of the future T-50 fighter, or an intermediate step between the two, took to the air for the first time from the freezing runway of Dzemgi Air Force Base (shared with the KnAAPO plant) at Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Russian Far East Siberia (see also http://www.defpro.com/daily/details/497/). A fundamental step has at last been accomplished in the development of the long-expected Russian response to the American F-22 RAPTOR air dominance fighter. Airframe
The aerodynamic configuration of the PAK-FA maintains a vague reference to the Su-27 as regards the fuselage and the location of the engines, which are installed in widely separated nacelles forming a tunnel with the flat bottom of the fuselage. The general planform is a tailed delta, similar to the F-22, with the all-moving horizontal tailplanes close-coupled and on the same plane to the wing without any gap. The twin vertical surfaces, canted outward by perhaps 25°, are also all-moving. This solution has been used rarely in recent times; in particular the ill-fated Northrop YF-23 had a pair of all-moving butterfly tailplanes. The all-moving verticals however had been fairly used in supersonic designs dating back to the late 1950s or 60s, in particular the SR-71 which used a pair of all-moving verticals canted inward to reduce the induced roll moment when the surfaces were rotated, and most of the North American design of the period - the RA-5C VIGILANTE, its contemporary YF-107 and the unique XB-70 - as well as the British BAC TSR 2 used a similar solution.
(Excerpt) Read more at defpro.com ...
>The Germans in WW II developed stealth technology by the Horton Brothers. The developed the HO-229 in 1944.
Experimental HO-229 is nothing to do with “stealth” in modern conception.
Russia has advanced material science, airframe designs and math to implement stealth technology.
So why Russia should be “50 years behind of the USA when it comes to stealth technology?”
Showing your pro-Russia colors again
>Yes, the theory behind stealth was a Russian discovery, but the aircraft designers never put it into practice. They have had great designers and mathematicians, but the political structure didn’t reward risk takers.
Air force never was main priority in Soviet army. It’s not surprising that Ufimtsev’s theoretical work was not used for practical works in USSR.
>At this point, the new fighter is more like an F-18E, with reduced radar cross section, rather than true stealth.
Why its RCS should be matched with 4th-generation F-18E???
PAKFA has a lot of stealth features: small inclined tail, big usage of composites, internal weapons bays, S-shaped inlet channels.
F-18 still uses classical 4th generation airframe design with external pylons for weapons.
“Air force never was main priority in Soviet army. It’s not surprising that Ufimtsev’s theoretical work was not used for practical works in USSR.”
Air power never was main priority of the Soviet military. Why? Because the Russians know that air power cannot hold ground, only masses of troops can do that - which is why they had enormous armies and proportionatly few planes. Troop casualties were considered insignifigant; they were prepared to lose tens of thousands of troops in any conflict with the west (cf the taking of Germany in WWII).
One other reason air power was not a major consideration was the Russians planned on taking out western fighter bases with tactical nukes. Leaving only their long range bombers and fighters flying. Using nukes was and is always the Russian first response to direct conflict with the west.
Finally, an accurate cutaway drawing. Thanks!
Cool picture there!
No, more like the F-35 Lightning II, with forward aspect stealth, as opposed to the F-22 Raptor’s all-aspect stealth.
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