Su-47 Berkut

Briefly (and very briefly fail) history of domestic feathered predator is. The first mention of the development of the Sukhoi Design Bureau promising fifth-generation fighter aircraft appeared in western journals in 1994 1995's. It was believed that his design started in the late 80s. In the publications of this car passed under the designation "C-32". Initially, the new plane was only known that the main feature of its aerodynamic layout is a forward-swept wing. Representatives EDO generally denied the existence of such an aircraft. The situation changed dramatically when the pages of the magazine "Journal of Air Force" (March-April 1996) accidentally (?) Got a photograph taken Skrynnikova C., while the chief editor of the magazine., Embodying the participants to the meeting of the Military Council of the Russian Air Force representatives management of the Air Forces and the aviation industry. Ha table were two models of planes, one of which you can find a multi-purpose fighter Su-27M (Su-35), and the other, painted black, with the number "32" on the board, was an aircraft with canards, forward-swept wing and "littered with" inside keels. This was clearly a new generation fighter project. The very model of the aircraft was classified as "top secret".





As long as conducted an internal investigation, how the shot hit the pages of the magazine, the West has worked diligently on this topic. In December 1997 the English aviation weekly Flight International (11-17 December), published an article entitled "Dry" makes a fifth-generation fighter project '', co-written by Alexander Velovich (former head of the brigade in the Mikoyan Design Bureau) and Barry Douglas. British experts have managed to handle this picture that almost imperceptible modelka became discernible to the smallest detail, which helped prepare the first drawings of the new Russian fighter. At the end of the year in magazines Flight and Jane's Defence Weekly published pictures of the aircraft C-32.



In print, a wave of publications in which on the basis of the "pictures" model C-32 in every way the authors analyzed the expected characteristics and combat capabilities of the new aircraft. The representatives of the Sukhoi Design Bureau continued to remain silent, saying they did not know about any fighter with forward-swept wing ("there may be some projects, but not much else ..."). "Investigators journalists" even concluded that & quot; ... .in Sukhoi an unauthorized leak & quot ;.



In July, the aircraft was transferred to the airport LII. Gromov in Zhukovsky, where he completed the first taxiing. Even ready to demonstrate the machine at MAKS-97, but at the last moment Air Force leadership considered it premature. Ha MAKS this aircraft demonstrated in 1999, but only in flight, without placing on the ground exposure. He planned his show overseas, but it was not received permission from the Ministry of Defense.



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