The T-50 (PAK-FA) Thread

[4c Hajduk Veljko]

Looks like a fail to me. No PAk FA in 2009 as promised as I expected.

I expected you to say so.

[topol-m]

Looks like a fail to me. No PAk FA in 2009 as promised as I expected.

 

Well not that big delay after all. Runway test have been conducted in December 2009, and first flight is expected in January 2010. For a photo though we might have to wait a little bit longer :( , but after all no one has promised anything about photos.

[Force_Feedback]

Well not that big delay after all. Runway test have been conducted in December 2009, and first flight is expected in January 2010. For a photo though we might have to wait a little bit longer :( , but after all no one has promised anything about photos.

 

Well, Sukhoi said that there will be a press kit available in the begin on January, so it's just a matter of time now, or they must mean January 2011 :P

 

And if it crashes during the first flights, let's we'll get to see how well the next generation of the K-36 ejection seat is performing :D (my sick fascination with ejection seats :P)

 

EDIT: P.S., over at paralay dot ru there is a new reminder not to disclose information about the PAK-FA. I think someone got a message from the Russian security services over there :P

Let's hope the press kit will be released soon.

Edited January 2, 2010 by Force_Feedback

[Frazer]

Some concept art:

[zakobi]

found this:

Derivative project with India, The Sukhoi/HAL FGFA

 

Russia and India agreed in early 2007 to jointly study and develop a Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft Programme, FGFA.[27][28] On October 27, 2007, Asia Times quoted Sukhoi's director, Mikhail Pogosyan, "We [india and Russia] will share the funding, engineering and intellectual property [of the new project] in a 50-50 proportion."[29] The Indian version, according to the deal, will be different from the Russian version and specific to Indian requirements[30]. While the Russian version will be a single-pilot fighter, the Indian variant will have a twin-seat configuration based on its operational doctrine which calls for greater radius of combat operations. The wings and control surfaces need to be reworked for the FGFA.[31] Although, development work has yet to begin, the Russian side has expressed optimism that a test article will be ready for its maiden flight by early 2010[32] induction into service by 2015.[33] Its Maiden Flight is said to be in early 2010.[34]

[sniffer]

India, Russia close to PACT on next generation fighter

 

Source: Business Standard

 

Ajai Shukla/New Delhi - Jan 05,2010 00:38 AM

 

Late last year, a defence ministry delegation to Sukhoi's flagship aircraft facility in Siberia became the first Indians to set eyes upon the next-generation fighter that is slated to form the backbone of the future Indian Air Force (IAF). In that first meeting, carefully choreographed by Sukhoi, the new fighter, standing on the tarmac waved a welcome to the Indians, moving all its control fins simultaneously.

 

The effect, recounts one member of that delegation, was electric. The senior IAF officer there walked silently up to the aircraft and touched it almost incredulously. This was the Sukhoi T-50, the first technology demonstrator of what India terms the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA). Senior defence ministry sources tell Business Standard that — after five years of haggling over the FGFA's form, capabilities and work-share — a detailed contract on joint development is just around the corner.

The contract, which Bangalore-based Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) will sign with Russia's United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), will commit to building 250 fighters for the IAF and an equal number for Russia. The option for further orders will be kept open. HAL and UAC will be equal partners in a joint venture company, much like the Brahmos JV, that will develop and manufacture the FGFA.

 

The cost of developing the FGFA, which would be shared between both countries, will be $8-10 billion (Rs 37,000-45,000 crore). Over and above that, say IAF and defence ministry sources, each FGFA will cost Rs 400-500 crore.

 

Sukhoi's FGFA prototype, which is expected to make its first flight within weeks, is a true stealth aircraft, almost invisible to enemy radar. According to a defence ministry official, "It is an amazing looking aircraft. It has a Radar Cross Section (RCS) of just 0.5 square metre as compared to the Su-30MKI's RCS of about 20 square metres.&"

 

[That means that while a Su-30MKI would be as visible to enemy radar as a metal object 5 metres X 4 metres in dimension, the FGFA's radar signature would be just 1/40th of that.]

 

A key strength of the 30-35 tonne FGFA would be data fusion; the myriad inputs from the fighter's infrared, radar, and visual sensors would be electronically combined and fed to the pilots in easy-to-read form.

 

The FGFA partnership was conceived a decade ago, in 2000, when Sukhoi's celebrated chief, Mikhail Pogosyan, invited a visiting Indian Air Force officer out to dinner in Moscow. Boris Yeltsin's disastrous presidency had just ended, and Russia's near bankruptcy was reflected in the run-down condition of a once-famous restaurant. But, as the IAF officer recounts, the vodka was flowing and Pogosyan was in his element, a string of jokes translated by a female interpreter.

 

Late that evening Pogosyan turned serious, switching the conversation to a secret project that, officially, did not even exist. Sukhoi, he confided to the IAF officer, had completed the design of a fifth generation fighter, as advanced as America's F-22 Raptor, which is still the world's foremost fighter. Russia's economy was in tatters, but Sukhoi would develop its new, high-tech fighter if India partnered Russia, sharing the costs of developing the fighter at Sukhoi's plant, Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Organisation (KnAAPO).

 

Reaching out to India was logical for Russia. During the 1990s — when thousands of Russian military design bureaus starved for funds, and a bankrupt Moscow cancelled 1,149 R & D projects — India's defence purchases had kept Russia's defence industry alive, bankrolling the development of the Sukhoi-30 fighter; the Talwar-class stealth frigates; the Uran and Klub ship-borne missiles; and the MiG-21 upgrade.

 

But co-developing a fifth generation fighter is a different ball game, financially and technologically, and India's MoD hesitated to sign up. Meanwhile enriched by hydrocarbon revenues, Moscow gave Sukhoi the green light to develop the FGFA, which Russia terms the PAK-FA, the acronym for Perspektivnyi Aviatsionnyi Kompleks Frontovoi Aviatsy (literally Prospective Aircraft Complex of Frontline Aviation).

 

Today, Russia is five years into the development of the FGFA. In November 2007, India and Russia signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement on co-developing the fighter, but it has taken two more years to agree upon common specifications, work shares in development, and in resolving issues like Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).

 

The prototype that Sukhoi has built is tailored to Russian Air Force requirements. But the IAF has different specifications and the JV will cater for both air forces, producing two different, but closely related, aircraft. For example, Russia wants a single-seat fighter; the IAF, happy with the Su-30MKI, insists upon a twin-seat fighter with one pilot flying and the other handling the sensors, networks and weaponry.

 

Negotiations have resolved even this fundamental conflict. India has agreed to buy a mix of about 50 single-seat and 200 twin-seat aircraft. Russia, in turn, will consider buying more twin-seat aircraft to use as trainers. But even as both countries narrow their differences, fresh challenges lie ahead: preparing India's nascent aerospace industry for the high-tech job of developing and manufacturing a fifth-generation fighter.

 

(This is the first of a two-part series on the IAF's fifth-generation fighter)

 

(Part II: FGFA negotiating hardball: Russia says India brings little to the table)

 

We're so close...

[dawestsides]

That is fresh news...I think that we'll see the beast very soon.

[Griffin]

RCS of 0.5 M2? Didn't they say F-22 or F-35 have RCS of a mosquito or something like that? Or was it only talk of the marketing men?

 

Thanks for the article sniffer. I really hope this bird will perform. Even though I don't expect it to beat Raptor, I'm really afraid that people start calling it "cheap wannabe" or Raptorski like I've heard.

[Force_Feedback]

RCS of 0.5 M2? Didn't they say F-22 or F-35 have RCS of a mosquito or something like that? Or was it only talk of the marketing men?

 

Thanks for the article sniffer. I really hope this bird will perform. Even though I don't expect it to beat Raptor, I'm really afraid that people start calling it "cheap wannabe" or Raptorski like I've heard.

 

Well, if it performs for 70% of the Raptor's and costs 50%, then it's good value.

[Mugatu]

0.5 vs 0.0001m2 to 0.0014m2 big difference if the article below is correct

 

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htairfo/articles/20051125.aspx

[topol-m]

It is soooo early to talk about PAK-FA`s RCS in numbers. The aircraft still hasn`t made its first flight. It`s like comparing YF-22 to F-22. Unless it comes straight from Sukhoi such info can hardly be accurate.

[Wilde]

0.5 vs 0.0001m2 to 0.0014m2 big difference if the article below is correct

 

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htairfo/articles/20051125.aspx

As long as they've got nothing new in the pipe I bet you this number will go down to something like 0.0000001m2 or something with the years passing by. It's almost like a running gag how they put zero's between the dot and the one. :lol:

 

Unless it comes straight from Sukhoi such info can hardly be accurate.

If they are serious about stealth I doubt anything they state can be really believed. I mean obscurity is part of the design after all. ;)

[mikoyan]

I been waiting for the pictures for the pak af since I was 15 seriously, just show the airplane Sukhoi!!!!!!

[zakobi]

To be honest, I'm looking more forward to IAFs two-seater version.

[sniffer]

I been waiting for the pictures for the pak af since I was 15 seriously, just show the airplane Sukhoi!!!!!!

 

Oh, You must be quite old ;)

[LonesomeCowboyBert]

Shaman, despite it's Stealth requirement that one's too big to have low RCS...

 

 

Too big?............so the B2 is not stealthy?, you learn something new every day here:megalol:

[zakobi]

oi, i found a picture of the pak!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or at least, a Pak-40 :music_whistling:

[sniffer]

There are rumours about showing up T-50 at 10th of February. Few days later should have first flight. Unfortunately this is only rumour (maybe true maybe not) but better than next PS'ed picture and I'm so curious what will be first PAK-FA or FC 2.0 :lol:

 

My bet: FC 2.0

[59th_LeFty]

You're like being confused to buy a BMW or a Mercedes, aren't you? :)

[sniffer]

Naaah! I'm too young to drive Mercedes ;)

[gigz-on]

Any ideas? :music_whistling:

 

[Sov13t]

Looks like a simulator of some sorts... judging by the overhead projector that projects something in front of the pit ;)

[Kusch]

Rafale ;)

[gigz-on]

Rafale ;)

Yes, it was someone's bad joke..:doh:

[Force_Feedback]

What about the Su-27 crash near Komsomolks Na Omur? Could it be that the PAK-Fa already crashed, and the story is being covered up by saying it was a Su-27SM???? :D

 

Well, not funny, the pilot is dead, but he did what he loved, so not a lot of remorse here.