SU-30 Video
 

I guess our guys would blow this guy away about 200 miles, out but I would sure hate to fight him in close with guns.


http://www.crazyaviation.com/movies/CA_SU-30.wmv

That's an incredible display of a very agile a/c, thanks for posting it.

Altough I've seen it before it never ceases to amaze me, particularly the somersault within the loop. And that thing is about 6 feet longer and more than twice as heavy as the Saab 340 I fly......
Mind you, I wish the Saab could do that :E .

It can do it DB.......once! :}

'Scuse me! Was that flying, or falling? Ah, ...... both.:uhoh:

For any specification for a military aircraft that includes the word 'agile', there is the definitive!:D

Does anyone know when that footage was shot?

Was it at an airshow or promo footage?

Blooming good display in any case.

Cheers,

ABX

it maybe Paris or Farn airshow, if not its done similar..........the F22 can do the same, although the somersault is a gimmick, close in you'd have one shot, your pitch rate would be that high it would be almost impossible, by the time you have regained your situational awareness you've lost all your a/c energy and will have a SRAAM on your arse

Interesting bit of video - looks damned painful for the pilot in places!

Not Farnborough, and I don't think that background is Paris either. The buildings look Eastern European to me.

G

Indeed - to 'Joe Airshow' it looks impressive. The somersault appears to be very much an open-loop manoeuvre and I think you'd perhaps have some 'issues' trying to fire anything but a gun - and even with a gun, what would you hit while doing that??!!
That being said, it still fits into the 'Jigger Me!!!!' category.
G - what bits do you think would be painful? :ooh:
Cheers,
Ray :-)

Turning it about Raymond - are there any of those manoeuvres, apart possibly from the landing, which look physically comfortable to you?

Damned good fun mind you - I'd play given, err, well all sorts of opportunities unlikely to be presented to me for the foreseeable. Ah well, best left to the flying heavy metal grown-ups.

Incidentally, given the minimal amount of kinetic energy apparently present in a lot of those manoeuvres, would anybody really want to fire a prolonged burst of canon from that aircraft?

G

Well, yes, I guess if you put it that way. Perhaps not comfortable, but certainly fun :-)

Not sure about the gun, I remember hosing off all (578 rings a bell, if it was full?) my rounds (one burst) in a hornet once while doing some stuff. Twas S+L and the only thing that I noticed was a nose 'nod' by about a degree (ish) and a 1 knot speed loss (but that was well within the noise). I don't know where the gun(s?) is/are on that beasite and where they point - yes, 'forward', I know!!

I thought you'd like the whole 'tumbling' thing G ;-)

Ray

Would be interesting to do the maths, if the data was available; but, I'd have thought that a low mass aircraft (it is displaying...) at low energy (seems to be low speed / hung on the edge of stall most of the time) plus a reasonably energetic canon would not be a recipe for happiness, regardless of the location of the weapon.

Anybody got any A-10 time? That would be a reasonable comparison.


Like? I spent 7 years of my life working hard to avoid it, and make sure so did everybody else! Fascinating subject, but I've no intention of ever going there.

Cheers,

G

It was meant tongue in cheek ;-)

Fantastic video- why did the elevators appear to flap around just before landing?

And taken as such :E

G

(probably) Because the thing has feedback - if it is disturbed from where it 'wants to' be then it will wiggle the stabs to get back there. It may have flown through a little turbulence and be reacting to it. Same thing happens on a lot of FBW aircraft, to varying degrees.

Also possible that the pilot is, for whatever reason, slamming the stick about!

Ray :-)

Thanks Ray:)

Hi Raymond

The gun on this aircraft is situated on top of the fuselage where it blends with the wing, on either on the port or starboard (I forget!)above and behind the pilot.

I saw a fairly similar display at an air show in South Africa, back in '96, was an incredible spectacle and definitely one of the highlights to a great show!

Its not FBW, in fact I dont believe the Soviets have any FBW aircraft?

Cheers

Ant

It is extremely common to for some posters to assess extreme airshow manoeuvres and to conclude they have no value in the context of the operational role of the aircraft and so dismiss them as gimmicks.

Such people are failing to appreciate that these routines have often been carefully designed to demonstrate (to insiders) the margins of handling, stability and control and engine operation that exist and surround the normal service envelope of the aircraft.

Some of the manoeuvres on this video say several things very loudly (to those who can speak the language). For example that the engine/intake combination has a surge margin beyond the normal running line that is ahead of many other contemporary fighters and the aircraft has no minimum speed below which the FBW system must necessarily act to prevent the aircraft going slower – which of course is an issue with unstable designs in close in combat.

It was the same with my Harrier displays back in the 70s when as well as just entertaining the folk queuing for ice-creams I was showing service pilots of the day the alpha and beta margins that they could relax inside when doing normal takeoff and landing manoeuvres.

BTW antic81 it is my understanding that the Su-27 was FBW from the off. The Mig-29 went FBW from the mid 90s

JF,

Indeed. There is (sometimes) a disconnect between what people are seeing and what is actually being demonstrated. Although I would not be worried (too much) about him getting a shot off at me while doing the somersault, it (and the other mvrs) would certainly make me think thrice about buying the merge with this guy :-)

antic - SU30 is quadruplex FBW,

Cheers,

Ray