Did you ever see their version of a reusable space shuttle....before they abandoned it? It was such a shameless copy of OURS it was unbelievable. They only ever launched it once or twice that I know of. It’s obviously a lot easier to copy the APPEARANCE of something than it is to duplicate its PERFORMANCE!
I rest my case. ;-)
I did see one of the designers of the Buran interviewed and he said words to the effect that the laws of physics and the limitations of technology and engineering applied to everyone, and that’s why the Buran looked a lot like the Shuttle. From the first flight to the last, the Shuttle pushed the limits of a lot of technologies - it’s amazing that there were only two accidents, really.
You have to wonder how many Russian Cosmonauts were sent flying off into the depths of the Solar System to never be seen nor heard from again, crashed into the Moon, or just left to float around in orbit. We could only guess.....
Buran made only one unmanned flight in 1988 before the program was shut down. It wasn’t an EXACT copy. The Soviet design incorporated remote control for landing and,IIRC, jet engines to allow atmospheric powered flight after reentry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_(spacecraft)
As for the T-50, WOW! they are now up to two. (Although I suspect some Photoshopping might be going on in the photo at the head of the comments column.)
The US is building/has built what? ...about 200 F-22s (wish it was more) and will be building several thousand F-35s.
Yeah, those two Russian T-50s have me sleepless at night. (Same thing for the PRC stealth fighter, the Chengdu J-20.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chengdu_J-20