No doubt, the spice of the MAKS 2011 air show in Zhukovsky, Moscow Region, in August was the long-awaited unveiling of prototypes of the Future Tactical Fighter (Russian acronym – PAK FA) – Russian fifth-generation fighter T-50 the Sukhoi company is developing in cooperation with its engine, aircraft material, avionics, airborne systems and weapons subcontractors. The PAK FA made its debut on the second day of the show, when both flying T-50 prototypes were demonstrated in flight to Russian Premier Vladimir Putin. They flew as a pair, after which the Sukhoi design bureau’s test pilot Sergei Bogdan flew aerobatics on the T-50-1. On the following days of MAKS 2011, the second T-50 prototype, the T-50-2, was used in the flight demonstration programme. It would first lead a Sukhoi aircraft ‘troika’ with a Su-34 and a Su-35 as its wingmen and then perform solo aerobatics.

Actually, no surprises concerning the T-50’s design were expected from its debut demonstration at MAKS 2011. The customer did not allow static display of the fighter, and its takeoffs and landings even had to be performed at a distance from the crowd. To this end, every day, early in the morning, the tarpaulin-clad prototypes would be towed from the Sukhoi flight test facility’s apron to a spot in a taxiway near the end of the runway and be towed back at night. Takeoffs would be performed far away from the crowd too, with the run commencing from about the middle of the runway, which length, thankfully, exceeds 5,400 m. By the way, given today’s advances in photographic gear, this did not prevent numerous reporters and aviation spotters from taking many quality pictures of the fighter from all aspects possible both on takeoff and landing, on the one hand, and during its flypasts and aerobatics. Again, the T-50’s demonstration did not serve any surprise as its design and layout features had been known in advance owing to the official pictures published by Sukhoi since the maiden flight of the T-50-1 on 29 January 2010 and to numerous photos on the Internet, which were taken during the demonstrations to Russian and Indian national and military leaders in 2010–11.

A rather large T-50 model was on display for the first time at Sukhoi’s stand in the UAC pavilion, but it was impossible to see in it anything capable of adding to what had been known from the pictures. A full-scale exhibit on display at the stand of the ORPE Tekhnologiya company – ‘a composite fuselage midsection panel’. As is known, a sizeable part of the T-50’s structure is made of composites, including the large-size load-bearing panels, and this is a feature of the plane, setting it apart form the previous-generation Russian fighters.

According to Sukhoi, both PAK FA flying prototypes had logged 84 sorties by the beginning of MAKS 2011. Following another demonstration to an Indian delegation on 14 June, the T-50-1 was being given scheduled improvements, in the course of which it was fitted, inter alia, with the antispin chute in a special container housed by the tip of the central tail boom. This may be an indication of the plane’s preparedness for operating envelope expansion tests, including flying at high alpha. With the improvements introduced, the plane was flown out on 4 August. The aircraft flew several missions more as part of preparations for the show, pulled off aerobatics with certain g-load and speed limitations after the flypast with the T-50-2 and then was not demonstrated at the show any longer.

The second flying prototype that first flew in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on 3 March this year was airlifted by an An-124 to Sukhoi’s flight test facility in Zhukovsky on 3 April, but it had been flown out here only a week before the show, on 10 August. For four months, it had been subjected to the debugging and improvement programme too. The T-50-2 (side number 52, or 052), is similar to the first prototype, including in terms of the paintjob. It differs only in minor details. For instance, it carries several sensors of the integrated electro-optical system instead of the mockups equipping the T-50-1, and the design of the movable section of the cockpit canopy has been modified. During the two-ship flypast at the official opening of MAKS 2011 on the afternoon of 17 August, the T-50-2 was flown by Sukhoi’s test pilot Roman Kondratyev, with the programme chief test pilot, Hero of Russia Sergei Bogdan, flying on the remaining days.

On the final day of the show, the T-50-2 experienced a right engine surge while taking off in difficult weather conditions. The surge was caused by FADEC malfunction with a large flame exiting the nozzle. Sergei Bogdan had to abort the takeoff. Having deployed the drag chute and applied the brakes in an emergency manner, he stopped the plane before the end of the runway and taxied in to the apron. The incident seen by thousands of onlookers and filmed by TV cameras on 21 August made quite a stir among the public. The aircraft and engine developers, however, assured that it was no drama, rather a routine thing in the trials of a prototype and that the plane would return to flight in the near future. Indeed, the T-50-2 flew under the flight test programme with a swing in September.

This autumn, KnAAPO completed the assembly of the PAK FA third flying prototype. Its maiden flight at Komsomolsk-on-Amur took place on 22 November 2011. The T-50-3 is to be fitted with the main forward looking AESA radar and a complete integrated electro-optical system as well as other advanced avionics making it more like the future production-standard aircraft. The fourth flying prototype and assemblies for subsequent aircraft are being manufactured too.