Su-57 Video

Some great video of the preproduction Su-57 5th generation fighter. Lots of propaganda, too, that does not mention Russia cannot afford to replace the Su-27 family with the Su-57, so it will be built in very limited numbers. Those numbers will be way less than the paltry 188 F-22As we built and the Su-57 will definitely be a halo fighter.

Would not surprise me if the Russians treated it like the Heinkel He-100 fighter at the beginning of WW-II. The He-100 was a far superior fighter to the Bf/Me-109, but the Messerschmidt was already in production and the decision was made to only build a limited number of He-100s. Those fighters, however, were painted in multiple squadron markings and the resultant photos plastered all over pre-war and early war publications. Gunners and fighter pilots were still claiming He-100s in 1945, even though none ever saw combat. Would not surprise me if the Russians do something similar with the Su-57.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq9OTu9u6JM&app=desktop


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I would argue a bit that the He 100 was FAR superior to the Bf 109, but will not deny that it would have made a better fighter.

As for the Su-57, it cannot be as stealthy from the rear aspect because of those conventionally-shaped nozzles, though if they are variable in two directions, that might give it a slight advantage over the F-22, whose nozzles only move in one direction. The small canards at the leading edges of the gloves may also prove useful, but it appears that at high deflections they could interfere with air entering the engine inlets. Although it's been acknowledged that the F-22's vertical tails are larger than they needed to be, I still think the Su-57's are too small, even with computer-augmented stability.

In a close-in dogfight, if one should ever occur, the Su may have a slight advantage, but I still think the F-22 is unmatched in stealth, and would probably still be able to get the first shot.

 

Plus, some bureaucrat at the Luftwaffe decided that Messerschmidt would build fighters and Heinkel would build bombers.

 

The He-100 (obviously heavily modified) held the world's speed record for a while before it was eclipsed by a Me-209, also heavily modified. If you look at the Tony, it looks like a pretty good copy of an He-100.

Many, many Bf/Me-109s were lost in landing and take-off accidents because of the narrow main gear spread, while the He-100 had wide-spread gear like most later fighter designs, except for the Spitfire. So yes, overall, I would say the He-100 was a far superior design. Plus it was much prettier, and made a pretty good design lead for the Tony. The Tony was also misidentified as an He-100 early on.

The Su-57 does have 3D nozzles, like late model Sukhois such as the Su-35, while the F-22 only has 2D nozzles. Not sure that being able to pull more Gs while yawing is much of an advantage, except for building stronger neck muscles. Unless someone was planning to do a Fokker Dr.I flat turn.

 

I think there is a significant value in having a verified modern fighter design, even if it is only built in small numbers. It enables a country to produce a large number of modern fighters much much faster should they ever actually be needed as well as keeping the skill and knowledge base of the aerospace design community healthy.

 

I see that it has four internal weapons bays between the engines, but also have seen pics with it carrying missiles externally on its wings. Won't that effectively destroy its stealthiness? For example:

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The HE100 must have been a very slippery design because from published data it could easily outrun a 109 and they used the same engine. The 109 was a bit of a brick with wings but it was small. The HE100 used evaporative cooling which has often not been a success. Would be interesting to know if it actually worked on a large scale without baby sitters taking care of them had the thing gone into production. It was developed and designed without any knowledge of the Luftwaffe and those projects are not always warmly received. That alone could have been the cause of its failure.

It does look like a Tony with the wrong markings.

 

Same engine, pretty much.

 

Terry, the Japanese were given 3 HE100s in 1940 and copied them for the Tony. The even made a copy of the DB601.

It does seem evaporative cooling was limited for the most part to experimentals and racing planes. Kind of what I had remembered.

 

Brian- Affirmative, the in wing evaporative cooling usually ended up being replaced with conventional radiators at some point. The Japanese license produced the DB601, but had troubles duplicating some of the metallurgy, helped by blockading of strategic metals, so the engines were not as reliable. The Germans were not too keen on sending them engines, for some reason, like a war.

 

Yes...
The Kikka was an approximate ME-262 copy. They had the airframe from the Germans, but only had pictures and drawings of the Jumo. It flew, but they only built a few of them.

 

And of course the J8M was an unabashed Me 163 copy.

 

The F-22 can also carry stores on 4 wing pylons, but only if air superiority has been achieved and stealth is considered unnecessary. Obviously the Russians (and presumably the Chinese) think likewise.

 

On the F-22A, one of the primary uses for the removable external pylons is to carry extra fuel tanks for deployments. On the F-35, which also has external removable hardpoints, the idea is to gain air supremacy and then the payload increases greatly with external stores and combat radius or loiter time increases with external tanks.

 

And definitely extra fuel for Alaskan NORAD Region missions.
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Mule- Affirmative, stealth is not as big an issue as running out of JP-8 over that vast expanse.