Russia's first stealth fighter makes maiden flight (What was that turkey that we just canceled?)

AP ^ | 01/29/10 | VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV

[GauchoUSA]

MOSCOW – Russia's first stealth fighter intended to match the latest U.S. design made its maiden flight Friday, boosting the country's efforts to modernize its rusting Soviet-built arsenals and retain its lucrative export market.

The Sukhoi T-50's flight comes nearly two decades after the first prototype of the U.S. F-22 Raptor took to the air, and Russian officials said it will take another five years for the new jet to enter service. Still, the flight marked a major step in Russia's efforts to burnish the faded glory of its aviation industries and strengthen a beleaguered military.

The sleek twin-engined jet closely resembling the Raptor flew for 47-minutes from an airfield at Sukhoi's production plant in the Far Eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur on Friday. Development of the so-called fifth-generation fighter has been veiled in secrecy and no images of it had been released before the flight.

[Little Ray]

No offense, but the Ruskies INVENTED stealth - they just lacked the expertise and materials technology to build it. They thought we did, too, and published the math.
We picked up the math and proved ‘em wrong....
Now they’re catching up.

[A.A. Cunningham]

the failed V-22

I see you're still parroting the crap that that moron Carlton Meyer spouts at g2mil.

[boomop1]

Can't offend me unless you are a muzie or Obama. I know the Chinese copy everything and anything, I was there. The Ruskies are ahead of the Chinese in technology but the arms race is a losing expenditure, as lame as we are now, we still are in the lead..

[cranked]

I would be interested to see some RCS numbers because from my perspective, those engine outlets seemingly kill any stealth this fighter may have.

[valkyry1]

And I see that you still worship the V-22.

[A.A. Cunningham]

You suffer from cranial rectumitis.

[valkyry1]

LOL! Your way to sensitive, cant take you serious about anything. Go along now, no one is going to beat up on your precious V-22 tonight.

[Yo-Yo]

There have been many speculative images created as to what the PAK FA aircraft would look like, but that is NOT the Sukhoi T-50 that flew yesterday.

The T-50 has twin all flying vertical stabilizers (no rudder,) and the engines are widely separated like on the Su-27/30. The T-50 also has a more delta shaped wing, not diamond-like as in this image.

Sukhoi T-50:

[Yo-Yo]

That's not the aircraft that flew today. See post 28 in this thread.

[Optimist]

Has stealth design changed to the point that surfaces are no longer angular and flat?
Is radar absorbent material all that is needed with current technolgy?
Or am I missing something in the pictures?

[valkyry1]

The software that was written for the design of the F-117 could not cope with compound curves, it was limited to angles and flat plates.

However they probably could have gotten away with abandoning the software in certain areas such as the airfoil of the wing and still retain stealth but since they were on the cutting edge of stealth they did not want to risk it.

The F-117 was a first generation stealth aircraft. The B2 which came along not to much later, was able to incorporate advances in the design technologies and therefor was no longer limited to flat plates and angles, so it had curved surfaces.

[Yo-Yo]

What Valk said.