Posted on 04/24/2013 2:30:20 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Russian T-50 Fighter Jet to Start State Flight Test in 2014
MOSCOW, April 23 (RIA Novosti) – Russia will start state flight tests of its fifth-generation T-50 fighter jet in 2014, United Aircraft Corporation's President Mikhail Pogosyan told reporters on Tuesday.
“In 2013 we are expected to wrap up its preliminary tests and start operational testing. In 2014, we are planning to start official state tests,” Pogosyan said on Tuesday, adding "the first stage of the state trials should be complete by 2015."
The test program involves six prototype airframes, including four flying, one static and one systems test airframe. Another flying prototype will join the tests this year, Pogosyan said. "Flight testing this year will go ahead with five aircraft," he said.
The T-50, also known as PAK-FA (future tactical fighter aircraft), first flew in January 2010 and was presented to the public at the Moscow Air Show in 2011.
The T-50, which will be the core of Russia's future fighter fleet, is a fifth-generation multirole fighter aircraft featuring elements of "stealth" technology," super-maneuverability, super-cruise capability (supersonic flight without use of afterburner), and an advanced avionics suite including an X-band active phased-array radar.
India will also buy a fighter aircraft based on the T-50, known as the FGFA (fifth-generation fighter aircraft).
United Aircraft Corporation is the state holding company uniting Russia's aircraft building industry including Sukhoi, a military and civil aircraft manufacturer.
How is it a country that was bankrupted 25 years ago can afford to build this plane but we can’t afford to even fly the planes we have built?
We are so screwed.
That’s easy, they utilize their oil reserves and we don’t. Blame the environmental nut jobs, their lobbyists and the politicians that sold out to them.
Now granted, it might be a poor view of the AC, but it doesn’t look much stealthy to me. I see a lot of radar traps in the shape. This means yet another faux 5th generation place from the Russians. Probably has decent enough flight characteristics, and is chock full of reasonable avionics (from the French). Fifth generation though? Not so much.
That’s because Russia is populated by RUSSIANS.
The biggest new corporate success of the near future will be one that aids white Americans seeking refugee status to emigrate to Russia.
Build a few condos, and let people leave this third-world Haiti to-be.
The immigration bill is the death knell of the Constitution. It ensures eternal one-party rule by the takers and the fakers. The makers better get the hell out...
Not necessarily. For one please note that the F-22 and the PakFa are not equal. The Raptor is a better plane (several reasons for that) than the PakFa. This is not to say that the PakFa is crap ...the PakFa will be better than any legacy aircraft out there (basically anything that is not 5th generation), and it is a good investment for Russia/India. However, the F-22 is be better. Better comes with certain cost implications. Of course, once you add the military machine and its penchant for amping costs (e.g. look at the cost overruns for the F-35 and how that thing has gone way crazy) the pricing differential gets bigger.
Also note, that as Tanknetter said, next to nothing is known about this aircraft. There has been a lot of speculation - including entire papers written on it touching on everything from the missiles it will carry to even an analysis of its stealthiness against different radars that showed it would be stealthy against radars operating from the S to L bands but not so stealthy against those operating using UHF (e.g. the APY-9 radar of the E-2D), giving similar performance to the F-35. There have been other reports saying the opposite, claiming that the Typhoon is stealthier and the PakFa is equivalent to the SU-35 in RCS. The truth is somewhere in between ...it is ridiculous to state that the PakFa is the same as the SU-35, and just as silly claiming performance against radars when that information is totally secret. I've seen some people say it is better than the Raptor (not true), and others (this on FR) saying it is crap because the canopy has an arching frame (well, if that is true then the F-35 and the YF-23 were also crap since they have that too) or that it is crap because it has rivets (another FR gem, which is interesting considering it is a prototype and there are pictures of exposed rivets on the YF-23 prototype) and that it is crap because its fan blades are exposed (again, looking at the YF-23, which was considered stealthier than the YF-22, had a radar blocked to the fanblades that were partially exposed ...see pic below).
Bottom line is there is virtually no information available. All that is available is speculation that ranges from the intelligent to the silly (and mine is somewhere in-between as well). The only things I can say are fact are the following:
i) The F-22 will be a better plane, since it was built to be able to combat planes like the PakFa (which were expected to start appearing a decade plus ago had the USSR not gone tits up). In my opinion the PakFa and the two Chinese stealth planes (the J-20 and the J-31) are the best things to happen to the US fighter program. Those three planes will do two things: a) make the US authorize upgrades to the F-22, and b) add fire to the upcoming 6th Gen program. Unfortunately it will not add new build Raptors, but it also makes people realize the F-35 will simply not be sufficient in another 12 years.
ii) The other fact is that no one really knows much about this aircraft, and the few that know are either in Russia, in India, or in the US (and in all three countries they are either people building the thing, or people who have access to classified information by either working at Sukhoi/Hal, or working for the CIA). Simple. That means people saying it has an RCS of XYZ (e.g. our pals at APA) are speculating, as are the people saying it is 'crap' because its canopy has a frame (my only question to that, apart from the examples of the F-35 and YF-23 having similar canopies, and the fact the PakFa so far is at flying prototype stage, is bewilderment at how some would think the people building it are so clueless as to not know that exposed rivets/canopy frame/'exposed' blades etc are present). Anyways, no one knows what it is capable of apart from certain gents in Russia, India and (highly secretive chaps that James Bond looks up to) in the US. Anything on the internet, including everything I've posted, is simply speculation (some more intelligent, some less so).
LINK: YF-23 blades (probably blocker):
PakFa prototype taxing for takeoff:
LINK: Size comparison of the three stealth planes (F-35 and J-31 not in the picture):
Please see my post (#7).
Just because they say it is stealthy does not mean it is stealthy.
Thanks everybody for giving me specifications and performance and armament and such.
I was merely stating the obvious point staring us all in the face.
A bankrupt Russia is going to probably build hundreds of these (Gen 4 or 5 depending on actual capability) planes while we can’t/won’t even fly the ones we have built... let alone anything coming down the pike from Lockheed.
We are screwed and FUBO
Stealth is overrated. There are optical sensors today making it visible from dozens miles away.
Russian bancruptcy was followed by financial reforms, government deregulation, delegation of the economy and pro-development federal policies -IOW Reaganomics.
There you go...
Detection range DOUBLE the F22 !?
>>>Detection range DOUBLE the F22 !?<<<
Avionics aging fast these days. F-22 is 20 yo.
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