MAPO MIG's Object 1.42 fifth generation fighter prototype will finally be flown by the third quarter of this year, with the aircraft being used as a technology demonstrator for the company's Lightweight Frontal Fighter (LFI), according to Mikhail Korzhuyev, new general director of Mikoyan design bureau.
The aircraft has languished at the Zhukovsky flight test centre for some years, since fast taxi trials were carried out in December 1994.
The Russian air force is no longer interested in the 1.42 as a successor to the Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker, although Korzhuyev, in an interview with Russia magazine Nezavisimoye Voennoye Obozreniye, says that the air force is providing the16-18 million Roubles ($2.7-3 million) required to return the aircraft to a flyable state.
Korzhuyev admits that Object 1.42 is no longer being considered as a prototype combat fighter, but rather as a technology demonstrator to be be used for development of the LFI, a smaller, less expensive, concept on which MAPO is conducting preliminary design studies.
Both single and twin engined LFI configurations have been examined. The design is a 20t-class fighter, rather than the 35t of the 1.42, which was designed originally to meet the air force's multirole frontal fighter (MFI) requirement.
The report stresses the Russian air force's intention to finance MAPO's efforts in development of a new generation fighter. The rival forward swept wing Sukhoi S-37 remains a private venture, without the service's backing.
The S-37, however, is viewed as the pet project of Sukhoi chief designer Mikhail Simonov and receives his full support. Simonov is pushing the S-37 as a future fighter for the Russian air force.
Source: Flight International
