HEADLINE = Flight of the Flanker: Ultimate jet fighter turns 30

STRAP = Three decades after it was inducted into the Russian Air Force, the Sukhoi-27 remains the
ultimate jet fighter with its super-maneuverability, grace, beauty and sheer power.
In 1984, after seven years of development and test flights, the Sukhoi-27 (codenamed Flanker by NATO)
was inducted into the Soviet Air Force and the Soviet Air Defence Force. It was a defining moment in the
history of combat aviation as the Su-27 and its later iterations became the jet fighter that would shift
air superiority decisively away from western air forces.
British fighter pilot John Farlight, who saw Victor Pugachev turn his Flanker 360 degrees in 10 seconds at
the 2002 Paris Air Show said in an interview to Nauka I Zhisn (Science & Life) (http://vayu-
sena.tripod.com/interview-simonov1.html) magazine: What the Russians have achieved has astonished
us to the bottom of our souls.
Developed to counter the American F-15 Eagle, the Su-27 achieved much more, becoming a dogfight
duke that ran the competition into the ground. With its range of over 3200 km, ability to fly 2.35 times
the speed of sound, and astounding agility despite its 30 ton weight the Flanker wowed the masses
as well as the worlds aviation experts. Says Farlight: When you see there are no limits for an Su-27 or
that the aircraft can go vertical, stop, slide down and then resume normal flight and perform this not
once, not twice but time after time, you realise this is not an exception, not a trick, but a standard.
Trouble at takeoff
When the Su-27 was being designed in the 1970s, the aim was to make it better than any jet fighter the
Americans had in their inventory or on the drawing boards the F-14, F-15, F-16 and the F-18. But when
the first prototype flew on May 20, 1977 Sukhois legendary aircraft designer Mikhail Simonov
(http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/mikhail-simonov-aircraft-designer-whose-su27-is-
regarded-as-the-best-jet-fighter-of-the-20th-century-2240870.html) realised it wasnt as good as the F-
15.
At great risk to his career, Simonov mustered the courage to go to the minister of aircraft industry, Ivan
Silayev, to tell him the aircraft wasnt up to scratch and needed more work. Silayev said: It is a good
thing today is not 1937, implying that had it been Stalins Russia, Simonov would have been packed off
to the gulag.
By the early eighties, the Russians had developed an aircraft that exceeded the capabilities of the F-15
but only marginally. This wasnt enough for Simonov. He didnt want Russian fighter pilots to be in a
dogfight where their opponents had an equal chance of winning. Russian pilots had to have
overwhelming superiority.
We realised in order to obtain a decisive advantage of the opponent our fighter would have to be not
just more maneuverable but several times more maneuverable. In combat the advantage rests with the
fighter that is able to turn around before its adversary. We have decided if we are able to make our
fighter turn at twice the rate of the opponent, we will call this super-maneuverability.
There would be no compromises: To make the best plane that can defeat any enemy fighter we need
to have the best engine in the world, the best radar, the best missiles in the world and everything else
also has to be the best.
Plane invincible
The end result was a fighter of unparalleled performance. During one of its early flights when the Su-27
was chasing down the F-15s world records, the fighter had to start at full power from a dead stop. To
achieve this Su-27 was tied to a tank with a cable. To the astonishment of the observers the aircraft
started pulling the tank down the runway. The test crew had to then tie the tank to a bulldozer.
The 25 metric tons of thrust provided by its Lyulka engines rocketed the Su-27 into a vertical climb,
breaking the sound barrier. In Simonovs words, No other aircraft, not even a space booster can
achieve supersonic speed at such low altitude in a vertical climb. Normally this happens only in the
upper regions of the atmosphere where air density is very low. However, we could achieve supersonic
flight at an altitude of just 2000-3000 metres.
The Su-27s unmatched thrust-to-weight ratio and sophisticated control system allowed it to perform
exceptional maneuvers at very low speeds, such as raising its nose and standing on its tail a stunt
called the Pugachev Cobra, although it was first performed by Sukhoi test pilot Igor Volk.
(http://www.buran.ru/htm/str56.htm) In June 1989 Reuters reported from the Paris air show: Looks
like the competition between Soviet and American fighters in the skies of Le Bourget has been won by
the Soviet Union. The Russians succeeded thanks to their snake-like aircraft whose promising design and
ease of control shocked the experts.
Science of super-maneuverability
Super-maneuverability is the defining characteristic of the Flanker. Aviation expert Bill Sweetman
(http://aviationweek.com/awin/su-35-could-steal-paris-fighter-limelight) explains how this can decide
the outcome of an air battle: Unpredictable flight paths challenge the guidance algorithms of any
missile system. Basically, by making the missile work harder the Su-27 effectively reduces its range. At
the same time super-maneuverability boosts the Flankers own missiles. Rapid nose-pointing can
permit a short-range missile launch with a greater kill probability, writes Sweetman.
One of the little known facts about the Flanker is that its super-maneuverability reduces its visibility on
radar screens. Simonov explains: Super-maneuverability should be looked at as a system of maneuvers
for close aerial combat. Once the pilot receives a signal that his plane is being tracked by enemy radar,
the first thing he needs to do is to go vertical. While gaining altitude and losing speed the aircraft starts
to disappear from the screens of radars that use the Doppler effect.
However, the opponent is no fool either and will counter by pitching his aircraft upward as well. By that
time our plane is going vertical and its speed approaches zero. But all Doppler radars can recognise only
a moving target. If the aircraft speed is zero or simply low enough to prevent the enemy radar from
calculating the Doppler component, for the enemy our aircraft will disappear. He may still be able to
track us visually, but he will not be able to launch a radar-guided missile (either active or semi-active),
simply because the missiles seeker would not pick-up the target.
While the Flankers maneuverability is legendary, its long range also comes into play in aerial combat.
This allows it to perform repeated probes and U-turns a Cold War Russian tactic that can leave its
opponent disoriented, exhausted and vulnerable in a dogfight.
Another little known aspect of the Su-27 is its spacious cockpit which allows more freedom of
movement for the pilot. In fact, in the Su-34 (fighter-bomber version) the cockpit is so massive that the
pilot can stand and move about inside during long missions. Test pilot Igor Votintsevs longest flight
lasted 15 hours and 42 minutes. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZvMljUNCeU)
Flanker legacy
The Su-27 and its subsequent versions such as the Su-30, Su-34 and Su-35 mark a historic shift in air-
power from the United States to Russia and the countries that use Russian defence technology. Whether
in India, China, Indonesia or Venezuela, the Flankers have degraded the offensive and defensive
capabilities of their western and western-backed opponents.
4++ generation Flankers are also making future western aircraft redundant. In July 2008, at the US Air
Forces Hickam airbase in Hawaii, in a simulated dogfight (http://www.wired.com/2008/09/us-stealth-
figh/) involving an attack by Russias Su-35 against a mixed fleet of American F-22 stealth interceptors,
F/A-18 Super Hornets and the latest F-35 stealth fighter, the F-35 was clubbed like baby seals by the
Super Flanker, adding to the beleaguered stealth fighters ongoing troubles.
Simonov summed up perfectly what Russian air superiority fighters have achieved they play a critical
role in international relations by providing political equilibrium in the world.