A Little Familiar...

FredGarvin

Russia's new First Flight of the T-50

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_russia_stealth_fighter

As someone who grew up in the time of the Soviet Block why am I surprised this looks like a combination of the F-22 and the Northrop F-23?

mugaliens

Hi, Fred.

I'm not quite sure as to who developed what planform when... Perhaps an historical review?

But really - external wing skin fasteners? Clearly delineable access panels? Instrumentation vanes?

Please...

Brian_C

I am shocked that the Russians might copy an American design. SHOCKED.

tomkeus

Looks more to me like offspring of YF-23 and Flanker than of F-22 and YF-23. But I dont know why should anyone be surprised, T-50 designers had to answer a lot of the same questions as Lockheed-Martin and Boeing designers. They've clearly sacrificed some of the stealthiness of US designs for better maneuverability and the bigger payload.

Question remains, whether avionics would be able to catch up to Western (it will probably come close, because it is no more dark art that it used to be 20 years ago), and whether the plane would be too complicated to maintain.