Russia test-flies Sukhoi PAK-FA / T-50 stealth fighter jet

The prototype of the PAK-FA, or the T-50, Russia’s fifth-generation stealth fighter jet, which is a joint venture with India, has made its successful, 45-minute maiden flight.

Photo: Sukhoi Pak-FA / T-50 stealth figher test flight successful

According to Russia’s state-run ‘Rossiya 24’ television, the Sukhoi T-50 fighter jet was test-flown for 45 minutes at an airfield in Russia’s far-eastern city of Komsomoslk-on-Amur, near the border with China, on January 29, 2010.

The test-flight had been put off by 24 hours owing to poor weather conditions in Komsomolsk-on-Amur.

Reports say that Russia spent about two decades trying to build a so-called fifth-generation fighter jet that is expected to be a rival to the United States’ F-22 Raptor, which was first flown in 1997.

The design, the specifications and many other details of Russia’s PAK-FA (Advanced Tactical Frontline Fighter), or T-50, built by Sukhoi Corporation, are being kept a secret.

Russia’s news agencies have reported that the PAK-FA has a 5,500-kilometre (3,430-mile) range.

Officials have said that they hope the stealth fighter jet will enter service with Russia’s Air Force in 2015 in a single-seater version.

The United States’ F-22 Raptor, built by Lockheed Martin, is the world’s only fifth-generation air-dominance fighter. The F-35 Lightning II, another fifth-generation, stealth, ground-attack fighter, is currently being developed by Lockheed Martin.

An official of Sukhoi Corporation said that the maiden flight of the PAK-FA, which lasted about 45 minutes, was a success and also that the test-flight as a “textbook one,” with “all the expectations of the scientists being met.”

Now, with the first flight of the PAK-FA, Russia becomes the only country after the United States to have built a fifth-generation stealth fighter jet.

Though most of the details about the capabilities of the T-50 remain a secret, Russian officials have described the jet as the first Russian fighter plane equipped with radar-evading stealth technology – which is a crucial component of the so-called fifth-generation fighter jets.

The T-50, according to reports, possesses supersonic cruising speed, an operational ability of over 3 hours, and a range of up to 5,500 kilometres (3,430 miles), which is about twice the distance of the US F-22 Raptor.

The US F-22 entered service in 2005, following a $65-billion development programme. Lockheed Martin, which built the F-22 Raptor, claim that the stealth fighter jet features a radar signature “the size of a bumble bee” and can attain a top speed of over 1.5 Mach – that is, one and a half times the speed of sound.