Even when the land of the Soviets was making its last breaths, its scientific and design complex produced a representative number of bold and very interesting technical projects. One of these was the Su-47 - a promising carrier-based fighter, which later received the beautiful name "Berkut". Knowing that today the Su-47s do not fly, it is not difficult to guess what fate befell the fighter in general. The real question is: Was it really all that in vain?
The idea of creating a new carrier-based fighter in the USSR appeared back in 1983. At that time, projects of reverse-swept aircraft were very popular, and therefore the designers once again seized on an attempt to create an interesting machine. Initially, the Su-47 project began as a deep modernization of the Su-27 aircraft, but later grew into something independent. The main customer of the Su-47 was the Soviet Navy.
The Su-47 was completed according to the aerodynamic scheme, a longitudinal integral triplane. The already mentioned forward-swept wing was used. The wing mated with the fuselage as smoothly as possible, thus forming a single bearing system. The sweep angle is 10 degrees. The root of the wing is 75 degrees.
In the construction of the fuselage of the aircraft, aluminum-cast and titanium alloys and steels were widely used. There was a large amount of carbon fiber in the design of the wings. Many guards and fairings are made from advanced composite materials. The fuselage of the car received an oval cross-section with expansion from the air intakes.
The aircraft was propelled by two D-30Fb bypass turbojet engines with wide nozzles. The capacity of each unit is 15 600 kgf. The engines are started using an auxiliary power unit. The entire control system of the aircraft was combined into a single complex of aiming, flight and navigation aids.
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The result is a pretty impressive car. The "Berkut" is operated by one single person. The dimensions of the car were 22.6x16.7x6.4 meters. Wing area - 56 sq.m. The optimal takeoff weight of the fighter is 26,600 kg. The maximum travel speed is 2,500 km / h. The flight range at supersonic speed is 1,600 km. Service ceiling - 20 km. The Su-47 was supposed to be armed with 1 GSh-30-1 cannon of 30 mm caliber, as well as various medium-range missiles.
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So what happened to Berkut? On the one hand, the final was somewhat predictable: already in 1988 the project was withdrawn from funding and closed. All documents on the promising aircraft lay in a dusty box. The collapse of the USSR and the crisis of the early 1990s did not contribute to the beginning of the restoration of work on a promising machine. On the other hand, already in 1997, the Su-47 was again remembered within the walls of the Design Bureau. The first working sample was assembled and shown at the MAKS exhibition in 1999. In 2006-2007, the project was finalized and again removed to the folder. However, at the same time, the lion's share of the design documentation for the Berkut, which did not enter the series, was used to create a new Su-57.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about fighter-bomber MiG-27: why the legendary plane got the nickname "flying balcony".
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/151020/56390/
