A highly professional team of authors, engineers, artists and historians is the Wings of Russia studio, which has created dozens of documentary chronicles on the history of aviation. A special place in her filmography is the mini-series about the SU-27 fighter, to which the article is devoted.
Briefly about the studio
The studio was founded in 1984. This is due to the creation of the Buran video support department, a unique project of the Soviet era. Operator S. Zhadovsky shot MTKK from the cockpit of the MiG-25 fighter, making truly professional material.
Then the video studio prepared programs and films for the TV channels Russian Universities, Russia (RTR), and ORT. Only on the TV channel "Culture" for four years, 100 series of television programs "World of Aviation" were produced. Since 2005, the team began to be involved in the coverage of parades from Red Square. Recently, the studio has been collaborating with the Zvezda channel.
It was on his order in 2010 that the documentary series “The World's Best Fighter” was prepared, which is one of the most truthful stories about the prerequisites and features of the creation of fourth-generation fighters, their technical characteristics and innovations implemented by the designers.
The history of the creation of the fighter
The section of combat aircraft for its intended purpose occurred in the First World War. The flagship of aviation, leading the fight against gravity, became fighters. Creating more and more advanced aircraft, designers all the time had to sacrifice something: speed in favor of maneuverability, flight range in favor of combat load.
After the Second World War, piston engines have exhausted themselves, they were replaced by jet engines. Monoplane with swept wings in the 50s overcame the speed of sound, perfectly solving the tasks of fighting at a distance of air-to-air. The Vietnam War showed that sacrificed speed maneuverability is necessary for close combat, allowing you to "dodge" enemy missiles.
The documentary series highlights the problem of the birth of a new aircraft in a fierce competition between the USSR and the USA, in which the Americans won the first stage, who began the development of a multi-purpose combat complex in the sky as early as the 60s (F-15).
The task before the Russian developers was formulated in 1971, and the best project was proposed by Pavel Sukhoi Design Bureau. A feature of their idea was the fundamentally new design of the aircraft with a pointed nose, where not only the wing, but also the rest of the fuselage was responsible for the lift force, creating an influx effect. In the spring of 1977, the pilot aircraft was lifted by pilot V. Ilyushin. It can be argued that it was on this day that the best fighter in the world was born - SU-27.
Fight for leadership
The pilot lifted more than a hundred aircraft into the sky, but for the first time admitted that he had met a car smarter than a pilot. In addition to aerodynamic innovations, it collected all the best that combat aircraft had at that time: the AL-31F engine thrust exceeded the weight of the aircraft, the electrical control system did not require physical expenses, the air refueling system allowed to increase the flight range, the radar detected a target at a distance 100 km.
But the main thing is the unsurpassed maneuverability, which indicated that the best fighter in the world was created. The SU-27 was already ready for mass production, when it became clear that its characteristics do not exceed the performance of the American F-15.
M. Simonov, who was at that time the chief designer, began to break down the airplane scheme at the stage of the production process that had begun. Until January 1978, gigantic work was done to reduce aerodynamic drag: the engine assemblies were positioned differently, the nose was changed, the chassis design was redesigned.
All this allowed in 1986 to establish more than three dozen world records and in full-time confrontation with American fighters to demonstrate their dominance in the sky.
A documentary series of four independent films convincingly proves the advantage of a domestic aircraft that entered service in 1985.
Interesting Facts
- During the test flights of the SU-27, several test pilots died. Among them, Alexander Komarov and Evgeny Solovyov are the best in their profession.
- Based on the SU-27, several modifications were created, including for carrier-based aviation.
- The dumped mass of the Su-30 bomber is 8 tons, which is an unprecedented indicator. This is the best fighter in the world. Su-27 has a unique potential for further development and modernization.
- "Falcons of Russia", "Swifts", "Russian Knights" perform aerobatics in the SU-27.
- The SU-30 interceptor can be attributed to the generation of 4+ fighters. The first vehicles with unique radar equipment have already appeared in the troops.
To keep the aviation industry in the difficult 90s, the state decided to sell abroad the best fighter in the world. SU-27 is in service with China, India and other countries. The most important thing is that modern weapons are deterrence weapons that are not involved in large-scale military battles of the modern world.