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.
At this point, the new fighter is more like an F-18E, with reduced radar cross section, rather than true stealth.
>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.
No, more like the F-35 Lightning II, with forward aspect stealth, as opposed to the F-22 Raptor’s all-aspect stealth.