Unlike its Sukhoi forward-swept wing counterpart the S-37 Berkut (above), the MAPO MiG 1.44 advanced fighter prototype failed to appear at the Moscow air show. After its first public appearance in January, the 1.44 remains in MAPO's hangar at the edge of the Zhukovsky airfield where it has been stored for four years, and shown only to occasional VIPs.
MAPO chief executive Nickolay Nikitin says: "Everybody understands that it [the 1.44] will never enter series production. We see it as an experimental aircraft to research some of the fifth-generation fighter technologies." Nikitin says that the aircraft, conceived in 1983, cannot become a basis for a next generation Russian air force fighter to rival the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor. The Russian equivalent to the F-22 may appear "somewhere around 2015", according to Nikitin.
The 1.44 technology demonstrator is scheduled to begin its experimental flight test programme of 27 or 28 flights in September.
The results of the test programme will determine whether the development of this particular prototype will continue, according to Nikitin.
Source: Flight International
