Home > Sukhoi Su-27

The Sukhoi Su-27 ( NATO reporting name 'Flanker') is a Russian fighter aircraft designed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau (SDB). It was intended as a direct competitor for the new generation of American fighters (which emerged as the F-15, F-16, and F/A-18), with exceptional range, heavy armament, and very high agility.

1 Background

In 1969 the Soviet Union learned of the USAF's selection of McDonnell Douglas to produce the Fighter Experimental design (which was to become the F-15 Eagle. In response to that upcoming threat, the Soviets instituted the PFI (perspektivnyi frontovoy istrebitel, Advanced Frontal Fighter) program for an aircraft that could match the new American fighter on its own terms.

When the specification proved too challenging and costly for a single aircraft in the number needed, the PFI specification was split into two: the LPFI (Logiky PFI, Lightweight PFI) and the TPFI (Tyazholyi PFI, Heavy PFI), just as the F-15 program spawned the Lightweight Fighter (LWF) program that produced the F-16 and YF-17. Sukhoi OKB was assigned the TPFI program.

The Sukhoi design, which was altered progressively to reflect Soviet awareness of the F-15's specifications, emerged as the T-10 (Sukhoi's 10th delta wingThe delta-wing is a wing planform in the form of a triangle. Its use in the so called "tailless delta", i. without the horizontal tailplane, was pioneered especially by Alexander Lippisch in Germany and Boris Ivanovich Cheranovsky in the USSR prior to WWI design), which first flew on 20 May 1977. It was spotted by Western observers and assigned the NATO reporting name 'Flanker-A'). The T-10's development was marked by considerable problems, leading to a fatal crash on 7 May 1978This is a list of aviation-related events from 1978: Events January January 1 British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley, and Scottish Aviation are absorbed into British Aerospace April April 18 the Vickers Viscount becomes the first turboprop airliner. Extensive redesigns followed, and a heavily revised version, the T-10S, made its first flight on 20 April 1981. This, too, had considerable teething problems, leading to another fatal crash on 23 December 1981.

The production Su-27 (sometimes Su-27S, NATO designation 'Flanker-B') began to enter VVS operational service around 1984, although manufacturing difficulties kept it from appearing in strength until 1986.

The Su-27 served with both the PVO and Frontal Aviation . In V-PVO service it was primarily an interceptor, supplanting older aircraft like the Sukhoi Su-15 and Tupolev Tu-28. Although the 'Flanker' has some capacity to carry air-to-ground weapons, in Frontal Aviation service its primary role was neither air support nor battlefield air superiority--it was intended as a sort of aerial interdictor, tasked with fighting its way past enemy (presumably NATO) lines to strike tanker and AWACS aircraft. Soviet planners knew that NATO forces possessed a considerable advantage because of these assets, and believed that attacking them directly would limit NATO ability to maintain an extended air campaign. The Su-27 retains that role in CIS service, with later marks being equipped to carry the new Novator KS-172 AAM-L long-range anti-AWACS missile.

From 1986 a special Su-27 designated P-42, rebuilt from the prototype T-10S-3 aircraft and stripped to minimum weight, began to set the first in a series of performance records for rate of climb and altitude, the aircraft setting 27 new class records between 1986 and 1988.