by Reuben F. Johnson
Russia’s T-50 PAKFA fifth-generation stealth fighter is about to undergo flight testing by military pilots for the first time. The Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) said on January 6 that it would take delivery this year of five of the aircraft that have been flight-tested by Sukhoi at the Gromov Flight Research Institute (LII) in Zhukovsky. But the VKS, which since last year has encompassed the Russian Air Force and the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces, made no further mention of any order for production aircraft.
The five T-50s will now be transferred to the Chkalov VKS State Flight Test Centre base No. 929 at Akhtubinsk. Once at the Chkalov center, the aircraft will be put through a two-stage program, “State-Joint Flight Testing,” that allows for military pilots to gradually take over the validation of the aircraft. This joint testing program is in theory the last process that the prototype aircraft would undergo before the go-ahead is given for the T-50 to enter series production.
In the first stage of the program, the industry pilots who have been flying the T-50, which is developed by the state-owned United Aircraft Corp. (UAC) will train a cadre of military pilots to fly the aircraft. In the second stage, flights would be conducted entirely by VKS pilots and validate whether or not the aircraft meets the service’s operational requirement.
Read the full story at AINonline