Russia¹s top fighter designer believes that super-manoeuvrability and super-agility will defeat the new generation of long range-guided weapons being developed by Western missile companies.
Mikhail Pogosyan, general director of the AVPK Sukhoi Corporation, says that his company¹s S-37 Golden Eagle or Berkut experimental test aircraft was intended to master the technology needed for fifth generation super-agile fighters.
Experimental
The distinctive forward-swept wing S-37 is intended to carry out experimental tests of new aerodynamic characteristics, new flight control systems and to look at how to transfer them into a production aircraft. Some 13% of the aircraft is made of composite materials.
"Actual experience of modern air combat shows that close air combat remains unavoidable," says Pogosyan. "In aerial combat involving large groups of fighters, with approximately equal capabilities, none of the parties can achieve success at medium distance. Even with air superiority, there is no guarantee that modern long and medium-range missiles will satisfy the hopes set on them.
"There are registered incidents where American medium and long range AIM-54 Phoenix, AIM-120 AMRAAM and AIM-7 Sparrow demonstrated 100% failure when Grumman F-14 Tomcat and Boeing F/A-18 Hornet aircraft engaged Iraqi aircraft in the no-fly zones. Improvements in electronic warfare and low visibility technology unavoidably cause decreases in the efficiency of medium and long range missiles.
"Even when carrying out long-range missile combat by fighters of equal capabilities and weaponry, the one who is able to position his fighter with greater speed at the moment of missile launch, in order to use the dynamic capabilities of his weapons, will gain supremacy," he says.
"Under these conditions, maximum high angular speeds of turn and speed range, within which weapons can be applied are very important. Aerodynamics and fighter systems should also provide feasibility to change the aircraft¹s orientation and fight path without delay.
Stability
"In the general list of requirements for any prospective fighter, super agility - the ability to retain stability and control at all angles of attack - is top priority," he says. "Super agility was also mentioned in the requirements of the US advanced tactical fighter (ATF).
"But faced with a complicated task to meet a whole range of requirements fully, the Americans had to partly give-in regarding the ATF¹s manoeuvrability.
"We were looking for technical solutions to increase aircraft manoeuvrability in close combat," he says. "So the Sukhoi Design Bureau, of which I was then chief designer, proposed an aircraft with forward swept wings that would possess excellent agility in subsonic flight and not have worse characteristics at supersonic speeds."
Pogosyan says the forward swept wing has better lift characteristics, better control at high angles of attack, good stall stability and anti-spin characteristics, the ability to take-off and fly at low speeds and good lift. The flight results exceeded the preliminary evaluations of the design team.
"The technological base accumulated on the S-37 programme will enable the Sukhoi Design Bureau to retain and improve its status in the world market for weapons and defence applications," he says. "The bureau considers the S-37 programme to have critical importance in the development of the company.
"The S-37 proves the ability of the Russian aviation industry to develop the modern airborne technical applications and readiness to compete with leading foreign designers in the 21st century."
Source: Flight Daily News
