An amazing video of Soviet fighter jet

[CaptainTom]

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

[Daniel Bates]

Wow--that was freakin' awesome!


that pretty much made my evening, actually... thanks for posting it, Tom!

[Ahh!]

nice!
Airshow admission? $10.00
HD video camera? $1,200
Your own DVD 10 years from now? Priceless

[bburton]

I don't know much about jet planes, but are they supposed to be able to fly backwards and stop in mid air like that??

[Daniel Bates]

Bruce - a few of them can. As an aero major, I'm a bit of a fan of high performance aircraft...

[Night Owl]

I saved that clip a year or so ago simply for the coolness factor.

[guitarbug]

Wow! That thing can turn and stop on a dime! I would hate to get in a dog fight with whoever is flying that thing!

[gpbusa316]

Originally Posted by bburton

I don't know much about jet planes, but are they supposed to be able to fly backwards and stop in mid air like that??

Many of the newer fighter jets (F-22 for instance) include some form of "thrust vectoring"... meaning directional exhaust nozzles. Allows them to do some wild stuff at low speeds.

[Saltwater Servitude]

Pretty freaking awesome. The amount of thrust needed to enter into and recover from those maneuvers must be staggering.

I wonder how those maneuvers would work out against an armed and clear to fire F22?

[steve817]

Originally Posted by Saltwater Servitude

Pretty freaking awesome. The amount of thrust needed to enter into and recover from those maneuvers must be staggering.

I wonder how those maneuvers would work out against an armed and clear to fire F22?

I was thinking the same thing.

[Modsquad]

It amazes me that a country as seemingly defunct, that they are still able to develop stuff like this. But then again, they do supply a great deal of the world with military armaments.

[nyati13]

Originally Posted by Saltwater Servitude

Pretty freaking awesome. The amount of thrust needed to enter into and recover from those maneuvers must be staggering.

I wonder how those maneuvers would work out against an armed and clear to fire F22?

The older SU-27 that this is based on had 60,000 pounds of thrust, so this one is at least that powerful, if not more.

[Cerbera LM]

Youtube version if one doesn't want to download
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as33-0npooQ

Cool video and this reply on another forum helped me understand what is happening.

Actually, the Su30 is stalling - what we are witnessing in the video is the departure of the aircraft from the flight envelope. It was not flying backwards, it was not doing anything extraordinary - rather you are watching a very capable pilot making controlled stalls and spins, albeit at very high and aggressive AoA (Angles of Attack - i.e. where the nose is pointing in relation to the aircraft's direction of flight). At all times the Su30 is obeying the laws of physics - you would be able to see an Extra 300 prop driven craft pull similar stunts in the right hands.

What I found interesting is, from the landing clip, it appeared that the aircraft did not have thrust vectoring which meant that the canard wings were solely responsible for the high degree of manoevreability.

It is worth keeping in mind that the Su30 is a massive aicraft (as are all the Flanker variants - roughly comparable to a B17, I believe) with a corrspondingly large radar cross section making it a third gen fighter. Additionally the aircrat just seen was no doubt stripped down and a reinforced demo - good luck to the poor sod who tries to do anything similar with a combat payload slung against anything newer than an F-16C!

[CaptainTom]

I don't think anyone believes these maneuvers would be practical in a combat situation. A sitting duck is a sitting duck. If this guy can stall like that, I can shoot him down with my RPG from my Citabria.

But, the video is still awesome...

[chempilot]

awesome maneuvers, but you took the words right out of my mouth tom. looks great at an air show, but at those slow speeds, hanging there just riding the edge of the thrust/drag envelope is almost worthless in combat.