The T-50 (PAK-FA) Thread

It is rather obvious that the "LERXlerons" are very active at slow speeds. Dogfight with PAK FA, anybody?

Super Stealth technology for the T-50.

Super Stealth technology for the T-50.

 

Outstanding - such a pretty Aircraft :thumbup:

Just curious to see how it will stack against the classic flanker.

It is rather obvious that the "LERXlerons" are very active at slow speeds. Dogfight with PAK FA, anybody?

 

So is the F-16 leading edge...

@ Flanker, that is a beautiful shot!

I wonder how big are the weapon bays? From the looks of the pictures above, it me it doesn't seem to hold much.

The aircraft is bigger than raptor so I think the bay are big enough.

Also, I guess the leading edge of the wing is moving in F-16 not the Leading Edge Root Extension.

that's what he said :)

check the nozzles on the su-35

It is rather obvious that the "LERXlerons" are very active at slow speeds.

My assumption is that one of their primary functions is airflow control for the inlets. If anything, you might call them inboard leading edge flaps, because there's no doubt that they are a lift device, not a primary flight control. :) Any capability to make differential movements is probably very limited, if it exists.

I'm interested to see what kind of PAK-FA multimedia will come out of MAKS this year. I was hoping it would fly some sort of demo, but I've not heard anything to that effect yet...

The PAK-FA is scheduled to fly at MAKS, but it is still under restrictions as the flight test program is ongoing. The test pilot said they will do up to 5G.

Hey that's better than nothing! I'll be happy with anything remotely aerobatic.

They said both are going to fly.

Demo-flight

http://rutube.ru/tracks/4729648.html

I find it interesting that it's supposed to be "stealthy" (or at least a complete F-22 knockoff) but they didn't do anything with the inlet ducts. Fanblades are one of the the biggest and most obvious radar reflectors on an airframe. They're literally straight tubes, unless they put an array of baffles or something inside, which would seriously compromise its supersonic capability. That means that if this thing is flying in your direction, you will see it on radar. Hell even if it's flying away from you you'd see it even better.

I don't like it. The overall design is quite obviously lifted straight from the F-22, while the engines with that moronic rear-facing radar spur looks as bad as it does on every other Russian aircraft. I also hate the F-14 look with the engines wildly displaced apart from each other, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense from a design perspective either - there's not much to be gained from doing that and, in the event of an engine failure, it makes the aircraft extremely difficult to control. I'm highly skeptical of its stealth capabilities and, considering it's Russian, its avionics package as well.

Does anyone know if this is *really* stealthy, or is it like China's stealth fighter where they just put angles on everything, copied some pictures off the internet, and hoped for the best?

Well to be fair it is still a prototype and hasn't even received its production engines. There was discussion of radar blockers for the inlets IIRC, but you never can be sure what the production model will have at this point.

Nate

It's not supposed to be an F-22 knock-off. I'm fairly certain they said they weren't trying to directly compete with the F-22. This aircraft however will be a seriously dangerous adversary against anything that is NOT an F-22 or F-35, and it'll be quite a bit more of a challenge against those than all the non-stealthy aircraft of the world.

The aircraft is bigger than raptor so I think the bay are big enough.

Yes, well the Raptor is also the fat kid of the fighter world... the thing is pudgy all around specifically for the internal weapons bays - this thing looks pretty slim. The F-22 has two bays for missiles on the outboard sides of the engines, this doesn't seem to have anything like that - only a small bay between the engines, and it doesn't look very deep.

It has two bays between the engines, and you're right, they're not too deep.

It also has two bays for short range AAMs specifically - the two pods under the wings.

It does? I don't really see anything big enough to even fit an AIM-9 in, but it's hard to tell what I'm looking at. The things that do look like weapon bays are the landing gear.

Yes, so say certain reasonably reliable sources; though we've never seen those bays open.

Look at the wing roots just a bit outside of the engine nacelles. You'll see a triangular pod on each wing. Allegedly those are for AAMs.

I don't know if they can fit an R-73, but one way or the other, new missiles are being developed to go with this aircraft anyway.

The big long skinny thing? I assumed that was an actuator housing for the leading-edge flaps and the "ramp" (or 'lerxlerons'... or whatever). You can see the same style housing on the flaps and ailerons... that's for the actuators... but none exists for the leading-edge flaps. Obviously something has to drive it... and the fact that it just happens to butt up against the corner of the ramp seems awfully convenient.

It is unusually big and long for just an actuator housing, but it just doesn't seem big enough to properly house a legit air-to-air missile. If it really does, I can only picture it working with a very short-ranged LOAL missile. Pop-out fins and the like.