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Saturday, June 15, 2013

OK, I'm Impressed With this Vid of the PAK-FA

Here is a video of the Russian PAK-FA in flight test.

It appears to be in a flat spin that it recovers from fairly easily.



It looks like the "stinger" between the engines has been slightly modified, probably to accommodate an anti-spin chute.

I think that this video highlights a difference between Russian and US philosophies on stealthy airframes.

Specifically, the US focuses a lot more on the stealth aspects, while the Russians are more focused on outright aerodynamic performance.

An example of this is the cooling arrangements.

The US F-22 and F-35 are constructed much like thermos bottles, with the cooling being accomplished by dumping heat the fuel before it is burnt.

It makes for an airframe free of radar reflectors that might be created by cooling scoops, but it also means that about 10% of the fuel on an aircraft is unusable, because it needs to stay on the aircraft as a heat sink.

By the comparison, the PAK-FA prototypes (This may change with the final model) seem to have a fair numbers of inlets and exhausts.

I am not sure how this will all play out, though I think that the Russian aircraft will be easier for a low tech military to maintain, though that has been the case since WWII.

H/t The DEW Line

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