We have always paid special attention to aircraft building, especially in the military sphere - the length of the borders is huge, and therefore, there is no way without military aviation. Even in the 90s, this sphere managed to survive. Perhaps someone remembers the triumphant appearance of the S-37, which subsequently turned into the Su-47 Golden Eagle. The effect of its appearance was phenomenal, and the new technology aroused incredible interest not only in our country, but also abroad. Why did this happen?
Program Basics
The fact is that the plane attracted general attention due to the reverse sweep of the wing. The excitement was such that even modern discussions of the PAK FA project do not reach those events. All experts predicted an impressive future for the new development and wondered when the Berkut will appear in the Su-47 troops. Why did they close the project if everything was so wonderful? Today weāll talk about this, as well as the development milestones of this aircraft.
Top Secret Object
It is known that the first prototype flew into the sky near Moscow at the end of September 1997. But the very fact of its existence became known much earlier. Already at the end of 1994, the Western press repeatedly wrote that a secret aircraft was being developed in Russia. Even the alleged name was given - S-32. In general, it is very likely that the secret of the existence of the aircraft was perhaps for us, because the media of Western countries and wrote about the reverse sweep openly.
Domestic lovers of military equipment received confirmation of all this information only at the end of 1996. In domestic periodicals, a photo appeared, immediately causing a lot of questions. There were two aircraft on it: in one of them the Su-27 was easily guessed, but the second car was nothing like it. Firstly, it was completely black, which is not very typical for the Russian Air Force, and secondly, it had wings of reverse sweep. After a couple of months (and this did not surprise anyone), quite detailed schemes of the new aircraft appeared in the same foreign media. If anyone didnāt guess, it was the Su-47 Golden Eagle.
In general, it was still possible to maintain some secrecy: it later turned out that the work on the project had begun back in the 80s. After the collapse of the USSR, almost all information of this kind āsuddenlyā appeared in the public domain. Which, however, is not surprising.
How it all began
At the end of the 70s, the entire senior leadership of the USSR Air Force reflected on the aircraft construction strategy for all subsequent years. Already in 1981, a program was launched with the goal of developing a "new fighter for the 90s." Design Bureau was appointed Design Bureau of Mikoyan. But the leadership of Sukhoi Design Bureau managed to convince the project management that the existing Su-27 has an impressive reserve for modernization, and therefore it is necessary to develop an existing car, and not āreinvent the wheelā.
Just at that time, MP Simonov became the general director of the design bureau, who nevertheless decided to abandon modernization plans, proposing to create something really new. This is largely due to the fact that the designers really wanted to test a number of interesting ideas, without risking to āget burned outā on a failed project: in case of failure, everything could be attributed to novelty. However, even then no one doubted that these developments would be extremely valuable in any case, at least from a scientific and engineering point of view.
Why did you choose the āwrongā wing?
So, why did the groundbreaking Su-47 Berkut get a wing with reverse sweep? Compared to traditional designs, it had several significant advantages:
- Excellent aerodynamics, and even at low speeds, this advantage is immediately visible.
- Superb lifting power superior to that of the wings of the classic design.
- Improving handling characteristics during takeoff and landing.
- Significantly less likelihood of going into a ādeadā corkscrew.
- Excellent alignment - since the power elements of the wing are shifted towards the tail, a lot of space is freed up in the central compartment for the rational location of the ammunition.
Constructive problems
All of the above theoretically made it possible to create a truly perfect fighter. But if everything was so good, all the armies of the world would have long flown on such aircraft. The fact is that when creating such machines it is necessary to solve complex structural problems:
- Elastic wing divergence. Simply put, at certain speeds it simply twists. By the way, this phenomenon was also encountered in Nazi Germany, where there were attempts to create such aircraft. The logical solution was to increase stiffness to maximum values.
- Dramatically increased weight of the aircraft. When making a wing from the materials available at that time, it turned out to be very heavy.
- Increased drag coefficient. The specific configuration of the wing leads to an increase in the area of āāresistance with all the ensuing consequences.
- The aerodynamic focus shifts dramatically, which virtually eliminates manual piloting in many situations: āsmartā electronics are required to stabilize.
The designers had to work hard to solve these problems, so that the Su-47 āGolden Eagleā could fly normally.
Key Technology Solutions
Quickly enough, the main technical solutions were determined. In order to achieve the necessary rigidity, but not to overload the structure, they decided to make the wing with the maximum possible use of carbon fiber. Where it was possible, they rejected any metal. But it turned out that all aircraft engines manufactured in the USSR could not give the required thrust, and therefore the project was temporarily slowed down.
S-37, the first prototype
Here the creators of the Su-47 (S-37) "Golden Eagle" came difficult times. In principle, they wanted to curtail the project because of growing economic problems, but the Navy leadership intervened, who proposed making a promising carrier-based fighter out of the plane. In the very beginning of the 90s, the researchers again returned to the topic of the wing with the reverse sweep, using all the developments available at that time. As a matter of fact, it was then that the Su-47 Berkut project appeared.
Achievements of designers and engineers
The most significant achievement of designers can safely be considered the creation of a unique technology for the manufacture of long parts from complex composite materials. In addition, it was possible to achieve truly jewelry accuracy in their docking. The longest parts of the Su-47 Berkut airplane , the photo of which you see in this article, are eight meters long. Simply put, there are few details, all of them are connected to each other with the highest accuracy, the number of bolt and rivet joints is sharply reduced . This had a very beneficial effect on both the rigidity of the structure and the entire aerodynamics of the aircraft.
The mass of the project aircraft was approaching 20 tons, with no less than 14% in complex composites. For maximum simplification, we tried to take part of the parts from commercially available machines. So, a flashlight, a chassis, and a number of other structural elements without changes migrated to the Su-47 āBerkutā plane directly from its failed āancestorā - SU-27.
Along the leading edge, the wing tilt is 20 Ā°, along the rear wall this value is 37 Ā°. A special influx was made in its root part, which significantly reduced the drag coefficient. Almost all wing edges are completely mechanized. Its entire structure is continuous composites, and only 10% falls on metal inserts added to achieve the necessary strength and stiffness.
Control
Right on the sides of the air intakes there is an all-turning horizontal tail unit having a trapezoidal shape. The tail is also made on an arrow-shaped layout. Vertical plumage is very similar to that of the same Su-27, but its total area is much larger. This was achieved by making significant changes to the design: it began to work more efficiently, and therefore the size was reduced.
The fuselage section is close to oval, the exterior is very ālickedā and as smooth as possible. The nose part with minor changes was almost completely borrowed from the Su-27. On the sides of the cockpit are simple, unregulated air intakes. On the top of the fuselage, they are also available, but the pilot has the opportunity to control their area, which is resorted to during intensive maneuvering, takeoff or landing. As you can see in the photo, on the sides of the nozzles of the Su-47 Berkut aircraft, the characteristics of which we are considering, there are small bursts inside which radar or other equipment can be placed.
Power point
Since there was nothing more suitable, the engines on the aircraft were placed on the TRDDF D-30F11 model. They, by the way, were used on MiG-31 interceptors. Their thrust for such a machine was clearly not enough, but it was assumed that in the future it would be possible to develop a more high-torque and economical model. However, even with a take-off weight of 25.5 tons, the characteristics of these engines were more than acceptable. At high altitude, the flight speed reached 2.2 thousand km / h, near the ground this figure was equal to 1.5 thousand km / h. The maximum range is 3.3 thousand kilometers, the āceilingā in height is 18 kilometers.
Equipment and weapons
For obvious reasons, very little is known about the real composition of airborne equipment. We can rightfully assume that part of it was transferred from the Su-27. The navigation system took full advantage of receiving real-time data from military satellites. It is known that an ejection seat of the K-36DM model was installed in the aircraft, and it significantly differed from standard production models. The fact is that its back is located 30 Ā° to the horizontal.
This was done so that pilots could more easily tolerate the huge overloads that occurred during intensive maneuvering at top speeds. According to available data, other controls were directly taken from other domestic fighters, and the Su-27 was most often used as a "donor".
Since the aircraft was exclusively experimental, it did not carry weapons in principle (or information about it is classified). Nevertheless, a place under the automatic cannon is clearly visible on the left wing influx (there is evidence that they still put it on an experimental aircraft), and in the middle of the hull there is a spacious compartment for bomb weapons. Scientists and military unanimously argue that the project was solely testing the flight qualities of these types of vehicles, and therefore some unique weapons were not on board the Su-47 Berkut. Why did they close the project, which has already shown itself to be quite promising?
What is the reason the project was closed?
It should be remembered that active testing of this prototype continued until the mid-2000s. The project was closed because it was originally planned to be made experimental. All the materials that have been accumulated during these works are really priceless. It would be a global mistake to think that it was a fifth generation fighter. Su-47 "Golden Eagle" - only its prototype, but extremely important. So, it is already known that its central bomb bay is almost the same as that on the latest PAK FA. Surely he didnāt appear on the last one by accident ... Only the military knows how many technical ideas from this aircraft will be used in the future. You can only be sure that there will be a lot of them.
Further perspectives
Despite the theoretical closure of the project, the Su-47 Berkut model still causes heated debate on domestic and foreign resources: experts argue about the availability of prospects for this kind of aircraft. Thousands of times all the pros and cons of such a technique have been discussed. And until now, there is no consensus on what awaits similar aircraft in the future: either total oblivion, or the transfer of all the air forces of the world to similar equipment. Many agree that the main obstacle to such global changes is the unrealistic cost of materials and technologies used to create the "Golden Eagle".
In general, the project should certainly be considered successful. Although the Su-47 Berkut fighter did not become the forerunner (although you should know) of the latest fighters, he coped brilliantly with his task of the āwhite mouseā. So, it was on it that dozens of new developments were tested, and all of them are still classified. Perhaps, with the development of materials science and the cheapening of the process of creating some complex polymers, we will again see this beautiful airplane in the sky, really resembling a bird of prey with grace.