The new Russian fighter: shown today, here tomorrow

The Indian Express ^ | Aug 17 2011 | Manu Pubby

[sukhoi-30mki]

The new Russian fighter: shown today, here tomorrow

Manu Pubby Posted online: Wed Aug 17 2011, 03:08 hrs

Zhukovsky, Russia : For the past two weeks, Sergey L Bogdan has been missing out on his favorite hobby, playing ice hockey with friends in Moscow, a 45-minute drive from this testing facility. It has been difficult to keep away from, he says with a smile, but that is the precaution required to be able to pilot Russia’s new fifth-generation fighter and India’s future mainstay warplane on its first ever public appearance before the world. Bogdan, who is the lead test pilot for the Russian T 50 fighter, will fly the new-generation aircraft at the Moscow Air Show on Wednesday. Till now, it has been a highly secretive project to create a futuristic aircraft to match the capabilities of the American F 22 “Raptor” and F 35 fifth generation fighters.

The public appearance marks a milestone also for India, which is partially funding the fifth-generation fighter programme and will co-develop a custom made version for the Air Force with induction planned by 2018. India, which signed a contract with Russia in December last year, has described it as the “biggest defence programme ever in the history of India”. The total deal is estimated at over the $30 billion mark.

Now, Bogdan, who has flown 70 of the 80 test sorties that have been undertaken by the T 50, has for the first time come on record to say that Indian pilots will not find it difficult to fly the new-generation fighter.

“It will not be hard to master the aircraft. Each new generation of fighters are easier to fly. While the tasks and missions handled by the aircraft will be more (than previous fighters flown by IAF), we are working to make the man machine interface better,” Bogdan said, in his first ever interaction with the Indian media.

While work on the Indian version of the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) has just about started, Bogdan says that the first public appearance of the fighter is significant for the Indian programme as the platform is common. India has placed additional requirements that include having two pilots for the fighter that is currently flown solo by Russia. An HAL team, led by MD Ashok Nayak, is also at the air show to check on the progress of the Indian program. The FGFA will be a leap ahead of the current generation of fighters flown by the IAF and incorporates stealth technologies that will make it invisible to radars.

Bogdan, who has 4,500 flying hours to his credit and has flown most types of Russian fighters, says that two prototypes of the fighter have been developed and currently test flights are being carried out to expand the flight envelope of the fighter.

“We are currently not taking it to a stress beyond 5 g but that will start once static tests are completed. The aircraft has flown at an altitude of 15,000 metres,” says Bogdan, who underwent 400 hours of training before he undertook the first flight of the fighter in January 2010.

Russia is planning to start serial production of the fighter by 2015 and is initially expected to get 70 of the modern fighters. India has come on record to say that it is expecting induction to begin by 2018 and is planning to induct 250-300 of the fighters, making them the mainstay of IAF’s strike fleet. There is a sense of urgency within the IAF to expedite the program, given that China too has flown the first prototype of its own fifth generation fighter, the J 20, in January this year.

(The correspondent is attending the Moscow Air Show on the invitation of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation)

[sukhoi-30mki]

[Lurker]

F14ski.

[doc1019]

Not that it matters; the Russians haven’t had an original idea since the T34 tank.

[Army Air Corps]

Ping.

[Jeff Head]

Well, look at those big fat engine nozzels in the back...those are missile vacuums. The F-22 and F-35 do a LOT better job of masking that infrared signature than what this appear to do. The new Chinese J-20 has the same problem...twin missile vaccums sticking out the back.

Fine fighters I am sure, but I do not believe they will be near as stealthy, either radar wise or heat wise as the Raptor or JSF. And that is a huge handi-cap.

In addition, we are going to build a LOT of F-35s.

We need a President and Congress who will double and triple the number of F-22s. We only built 187 of them and then stopped. We need 400 or more.

[Tucker39]

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!

[Mariner]

It will be a good bird if they ever produce it in numbers.

A true 5th generation fighter is not cheap and current numbers will not reflect the real costs.

The Indians have been snookered.

[doc1019]

I rest my case. ;-)

[The Antiyuppie]

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.

[ltc8k6]

Those big fat engine nozzles are probably quite stealthy, as is the T-50.

You can see that the nacelles are not ordinary at all.

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/1/0/7/1968701.jpg

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/5/2/8/1968825.jpg

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/9/0/8/1968809.jpg

[Bulgaricus1]

Actually, the T-34 tank had it’s body & tracks designed by an American. So, maybe the Ruskies NEVER have had an original idea...

[Bulgaricus1]

Actually, the T-34 tank had it’s body & tracks designed by an American. So, maybe the Ruskies NEVER have had an original idea...

[Ernie Kaputnik]

“...big fat engine nozzels in the back...those are missile vacuums...”

LOL! Nice observation on your part.

I’m not an aeronautical engineer, but I said the same exact thing about the vaunted Chinese “stealth fighter” (or bomber?) when the pics were posted on FR back in December 2010.

[KoRn]

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.....

[doc1019]

But they were the first to use slanted hulls (causing shells fired at them to be deflected}, thus, an original idea. The slanted hull eventually became the standard in all future tanks

[LibWhacker]

Good idea gluing a spare one to the left wing tip.

[Born to Conserve]

“But they were the first to use slanted hulls”

Nope. American tanks did that first too.

[duckln]

How about the helicopter?

[Talisker]

But they were the first to use slanted hulls (causing shells fired at them to be deflected}, thus, an original idea. The slanted hull eventually became the standard in all future tanks

C.S.S. Merrimac, 1862

[Draco88]

“Not that it matters; the Russians haven’t had an original idea since the T34 tank.”

“Actually, the T-34 tank had it’s body & tracks designed by an American. So, maybe the Ruskies NEVER have had an original idea...”

---

Well, the suspention on a T-34 was designed by an American - Christie suspention. I don’t know anything about the body, sloped armour etc. However, the Russians did come up with a few original ideas since the T-34. One is the Kalashninkov designed in 1947 where the original idea was to use part of the air pressure from the fired bullet’s shockwave to lock the next bullet in place for firing. The Russians also pioneered a lot of the double hull design on submarines i.e. Oscar, Typhoon, as well as exotic nuclear propulsion systems on subs such as the Alpha which used I think carbon or boron as a coolent that always had to be kept at high temperature for it not to solidify which happened on few occasions. But in turn, Alpha developed 40 knots. Let’s also not forget - a big one - Tokanak (Tauroid) fusion reactors.