PAK FA prototype makes successful maiden flight in Russian Far East

06:14 GMT, February 1, 2010 defpro.com | On Friday morning, Sukhoi Company (JSC) and the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) celebrated its latest success in the ambitious and prestigious fifth-generation fighter aircraft project, the PAK FA. The T-50 prototype aircraft left the ground at the KNAAPO factory aerodrome in Russia’s Far East and made its first basic manoeuvres during a 47 minute flight.

Congratulating all participants of the project on the occasion of the maiden flight, Alexey Fedorov, President and Chairman of control board of UAC, said that it “opens a new horizon for the Russian aviation for the rest of the 21st century and, hopefully, even further. Successful beginning of flight trials on the next-generation aircraft stimulates us for new achievements and sparks our desire to create.”

According to RIA Novosti, India's Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) is involved with a 25 per cent share in design and development of the aircraft and will create a twin-seat fighter based upon the single-seat concept within the FGFA programme to meet Indian Air Force requirements. The two countries, which already maintain strong co-operation in the military aviation sector, share the costs of the project, estimated at some $8 to $10 billion. Both countries reportedly are planning to purchase 250 aircraft.


Keeping Up to the Challenge

Designed and developed in a bilateral co-operation between Russian and Indian aircraft manufacturers, the PAK FA is intended to compete with the US-built F-22 Raptor, currently the only fifth-generation fighters to be in service, and the F-35 Lightning II. Due to its strong resemblance with the F-22, which had its maiden flight some 13 years ago, it has been referred to as the ‘Raptorski’ by Western sources. However, its domestic designation is the Advanced Front-Line Aviation Complex (Perspektiwnogo Awiazionnogo Kompleksa Frontowoj Awiazii, PAK FA) and its technological approach is very much based on the Su-35BM Flanker.

The project for a next-generation fighter was begun in April 2002 when the Sukhoi design bureau won the tender for the development of the aircraft. More than two years later the exterior design was approved and the overall design was accepted in the summer of 2008. Subsequently, construction of three experimental aircraft began at the KNAAPO facility in Komsomolsk-on-Amur with the first aircraft being completed and taxiing its first runway in February 2009.

Despite most specifications remaining classified, RIA Novosti reported that the stealthy aircraft is powered by a pair of 117S (upgraded AL-31) turbofan engines of the Russian engine manufacturer NPO Saturn and will probably have a take-off weight of more than 30 metric tons. The Russian news agency further states that the PAK FA is designed to take-off from short runways and to perform sustained supersonic flight at a velocity of over 2,000 km/h. It will be equipped with high-precision weaponry, including new long-range guided missiles, and will be fitted with a new radar and fire-control system based on the Su-35BM developed by the Tikhomirov Institute of Instrument Design.

Summing up Russia’s high expectation in the fighter and outlining its state-of-the-art capabilities, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov recently said: “This jet is equipped with a radically new avionics complex, with an integrated ‘electronic pilot’ function and promising radio detection and ranging equipment with a phased-beam array.”


Wrapping up two decades of Russian development work

Now that Sukhoi has successfully brought its newest aircraft to the skies, Russia is one step closer of fielding a fifth-generation fighter which is seen as a vital element in modernising the countries assets and may form the future centrepiece of the Russian Air Force. However, extensive evaluation will be required before the aircraft can enter service. According to AP, Sergei Bogdan, the Russian test pilot who carried the maiden flight, said that the aircraft was easy and comfortable to fly.

Sukhoi Construction Chief Mikhail Pogosyan told the press agency “This is an important stage in the realisation of our programme. [...] I think this is a new stage in the development of the military aircraft industry in our country. This is a good start to great work which is yet to be done.” And there still is a good piece of work to be done, as according to the Moscow Times military analysts estimate that serial production is still at least eight years off. The newspaper further reports of a governments meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin who suggests pilot training on the T-50 should begin as early as 2013 while serial production is scheduled to begin in 2015.

Retaining concerns over budget spending and engine performance, Ruslan Pukhov, head of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a Moscow-based defence research company, told Russia’s Kommersant daily newspaper: “Taking into consideration … the promise by Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin to freeze state spending in real figures beginning from the 2011 budget, it is hardly possible that the PAK FA will join military units earlier than 2018 to 2020.”

Nevertheless, calling it a big success of the Sukhoi Company and for the many participating contractors and aviation industry institutions, Pogosyan is certainly aware that Friday’s maiden flight wraps up two decades of Russian efforts to create a fifth-generation fighter aircraft. It further underlines Sukhoi’s industrial and technological leadership within the ranks of Russian aerospace manufacturers which have seen quite some up’s and down’s since the fall of the Soviet Union.


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By Nicolas von Kospoth, Managing Editor