The Russian MoD has signed a contract with the developer of PAK-DA long-range stealth bomber to commence production for a possible delivery by 2027 according to state media.
“The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has signed all the necessary contracts to start production of the PAK-DA long-range bomber. Flight tests of the aircraft is scheduled for 2027,” deputy head of the department Alexey Krivoruchk was quoted as saying by Zvezda, run by the Russian MoD reported on Monday.
“The characteristics of the aircraft have been agreed upon, all contract documents necessary for the production of samples have been signed, preparatory design stages are underway,” Krivoruchko said.
The aircraft is expected to be of subsonic speed, have a 12,000 km operational range and a capability to continuously remain in the air for up to 30 hours while carrying both conventional and nuclear payloads up to 30 tons. The aircraft is expected to have a crew of 4.
The PAK-DA is expected to replace all current strategic bombers in the Russian Air Force by the next decade.
Wonder how long it’ll be till we see a Chinese copy….
The Chinese probably have a better chance of getting it into service than the Russians do, if the resounding successes that are the T-14 and SU-57 programmes are any indication.
They don’t need to, the Chinese Aerospace industry has leapfrogged Russia’s in many areas and they have their own indigenous next generation heavy bomber programme. The Xian H-20 is comfortably ahead of Pak-Da and should be entering service before Pak-Da has its first flight!
Uh-huh. That’ll be the day
But then again they have such a strong record of 5th gen success giving the positively roaring success the Pak-FA has been
Why was the Pak-FA a lackluster jet?
To be fair, the aircraft they sent to Syria for “War trials” were prototypes, so didn’t have a integrated weapon suite. Apparently the only weapon that was integrated was the 30mm auto-canon! They still use a version of the Su37 engine as their production engine still has problems. I’m sure once these are ironed out, it will be a very formidable aircraft.
Seems quite an aircraft but realistically how many of them will be built at what cost. A very expensive one I suspect. If it takes money away from other programmes so be it.
A similar image to the released views of the future B21 by the USAF, i.e. a Photoshop image from an oblique angle showing very little detail. Except, seriously, wing-lets on a stealth aircraft? I guess they couldn’t solve the Dutch roll problem inherent with large flying wings? Regardless, wing-lets are a significant compromise to the aircraft’s RCS. One of the issues is the length of the fins top surface. It’s small size is a perfect candidate for Rayleigh scattering and resonance effects. Which are dead give ways for long wavelength radar.
Perhaps if the Russians gave up on their fetish of mega army and nuclear enilation, and got rid of their conscription and ancient soviet equipment for the sake of numbers along with spending less on an array of nuclear missiles. They could actually have a world leading, flexible and modern military that could give America a run for its money on the world stage.
What is enilation?
*annihilation.
Harry – I think the world would be a much better place if Russia Chilled out a bit and moved on from its paronoia that everyone and their Dog is plotting to Attack them.Admittedly the memories of 1941 still haunt the Russian Leadership but surely its time for them to move on – no-one West of them are going to execute an Attack any time soon – unless they know this and have done all along and they are actually looking East !.
Very very true. Speak to most Russians and they will tell you how Russians are indoctrinates from birth to view all outsider’s as enemies. If they opened up more and we’re simply more friendly they would flourish.
They’re already well on the way to remove any conscription…
Whether this is the best bit of design or not, what the Russians can create and maintain on such a small budget is mind boggling
We can now add this one to Russia’s growing Arsenal of YouTube videos and models. No doubt we will see two in the air in the next 30 years and the Russians will claim full operating capability on its ability to level Hospitals in Third World War zones.
Very probably. One of their Generals has already admitted that the much vaunted Zircon Missile is like a sick child and does not work as advertised.
No surprise there yhen
Then…. Please give us an edit button!!!
MMMMhmmm…
We’ll see…
Cheers
B21- Ski indeed ?
I didn’t realize it was April 1st
Intakes on the leading edge and tip fences? I thought these were points to avoid regarding stealth! Funny how for years the Russians were laughing at stealth tech and now they are adopting it. Speaks volumes!
Leading edge inlets can be ok, so long as they have “S” shaped ducts leading to the engine. One issue they do suffer from though is turbulence generated from the lower part of the intake, as the flow separates at high angles of attack. This problem also plagued the Nimrod and Vulcan, where it can cause compressor stall. The current B2 and future B21 probably suffer from this issue. Hence the auxiliary doors on the upper engine covers. However, it’s not like the B2 does aerobatics like the Vulcan did, so it’s not a major worry.
Wing-lets are supposed to prevent the lower airflow from the wing interacting with the upper airflow thus causing turbulence and drag. However, on large flying wings with no fin/rudder you have the issue of Dutch rolling which is lack of inherent yaw authority. All aircraft with no fin/rudder suffer from this problem. It basically means that in forward flight your aircraft oscillates around the centre of axis. This phenomenon became an issue on the first true flying wings made by Horten and Northrop. The Northrop designs never really solved the issue. Horten managed to shape the airfoil to generate less lift on the wing tips along with a more severe twist to counter the problem. At low speeds it still suffered from the yaw control problem, at high speeds not so much. The B2 gets round this problem using active flight controls and differential thrust from its engines. It uses its main landing gear doors as temporary stabilisers when taking off and landing. Some of the yaw control can be restored by using wing-lets, but the wing must be highly swept to be of any use (due to greater leverage).
As I’ve mentioned above, wing-lets are hopeless for maintaining a low radar cross section (RCS). If the fins are fixed, this helps a little, but it depends on its overall size and the materials they’ve used in its construction (carbon fibre is reflective to certain frequencies). Worse case scenario is if the fins incorporate a movable rudder. This will significantly raise the RCS, especially in the smaller wavelength bands such as upper X, Ku and Ku.
The flying wing makes an excellent platform as a bomber, if you keep it subsonic. You can make the merge point between fuselage and wing fat, but blended with little additional drag. Therefore you have more volume for bomb bays and fuel tanks housed in a very fuel efficient airframe. From the radar reflective perspective, they have a very good all round RCS and can be more easily designed to prevent resonance effects. However, if they come into visual range of any fighter type aircraft then its game over, as they aren’t aerobatic or have the thrust to compensate.
Looks somewhat like the Armstrong Whitworth AW 52 … 65 years late mind.
Sorry meant 75
At no point am I defending the Nazis, but when you look at what they had planned in the field of aircraft , it really amazes me how far ahead of the world they were during the 1940s
They weren’t though..
Most of the concepts were just that, back of the fag packet ideas that were best left there.
Take the Focke Wulf Ta-183, its regularly brought up as an example of how far ahead the Germans were. Only problem. It actually got built…as the FMA Pulqui II. And it was crap.
The Horten Ho.229 was also not a stealth aircraft.
The whole Luft 46 nonsense is for the Wehraboos.
You have to take Luft 46 in context. The Ta183 and Pulqui II are two fine examples. Focke Wulf designed the first requirement for a transonic fighter which became the 183 as early as 1942. However, by the end of the war only wind tunnel models had been produced, no static or flying examples. One of the head designers Kurt Tank went to Argentina after the war. The Pulqui project kicked off in 1947, with a very restrained jet powered design before the Pulqui II with the swept back wings was designed. However, due to the lack of any production facilities within Argentina, each aircraft was hand built. This meant by the time the 5th prototype flew there was an eight year difference. By late 1953 the World’s aircraft manufacturers had taken the knowledge of swept wing technology to the next level of knocking on supersonic speeds, so the Pulqui II design by this stage was obsolete.
The Pulqui II was a different beast to the Ta183. It used a RR Nene centrifugal engine whereas the Ta183 used a axial jet engine. This made the aircraft a lot fatter, so required a main wing to fuselage redesign. To get a full length main spar they use a high wing rather than the mid wing. This had some serious flaws, such as deep stall and tail blanking. The main wing had the same root and end profiles with no twist. So at higher angles of attack the tips would lose lift (stall) before the wing root, you would also lose aileron functionality. It also had the problem of loosing elevator control due to the high wing disturbing the airflow at high angles of attack. The Ta183 by contrast had mid wing, so the elevator control would be maintained for longer. The wing didn’t have any twist and used the same profile from root to end, so would have had the same deep stall issues. One issue the Ta183 would have suffered from more than the Pulqui II is lack of rudder authority. This is because the aircraft was really short (stumpy), therefore the leverage the rudder would have had would be quite small. If you compare the Ta183 with the Mig 15, F86 and Saab 29, you’ll see the fin is placed a long way back from the centre of gravity to make sure the rudder has more leverage.
If Kurt Tank was in Germany and the war went into another year, with the services and qualified people available to him, the Ta183 production model would have looked a lot different to the early prototype, probably more like the Mig 15. At the later stages of the War, Germany knew it was on the ropes, so rather than capitulate there was a rush to try and produce a weapon that could turn the tide. Most designs were rushed and pie in the sky thinking. However, some were based on sound engineering and could have been developed into a viable platform. There was also the issue the Horten brothers faced, if you weren’t seen to be working on a project, you would be reassigned to the Eastern front.
The Horten 229 fighter, would have made a viable fighter aircraft. However, it suffered from really poor engine life and reliability. National Geographic proved the aircraft wasn’t really a stealth aircraft. However, due to the blended wing design it would have had a small RCS from certain angles. The problem the aircraft had was that the compressor blades and turbine blades were uncovered, so would have generated a decent doppler shift that could be detected. Also the cockpit was a clear acrylic without any screening so would have made a very good reflector. Then there’s the construction of the aircraft i.e. laminated wood. As shown with the Mosquito, also made of laminated wood, it did not make it a stealth aircraft. Wood is not a radar absorber, so what ever metal work is behind the skin will re-radiate a radar signal. The main advantage the 229 had was its very high speed and its ability to operate at a much higher altitude. It would have outclassed the Meteor, but been overhauled by the Sabre and Mig 15.
Cost? And can Russia actually afford the aircraft?
Is it me, or is the resemblance to the Armstrong Whitworth AW-58 quiet strong. I just can’t help but see the AW58 when I look at those images.
You tube link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SHRMq3hNfs
And the wing-lets?
Just how stealthy will they be?, I understand them on the 1947 jet (pre computer aided flight) but on a modern aircraft?
Just how accurate are the pictures?
If they build more than two or three I would be surprised. The spectre stalking Vladimir must be the memory of all those empty supermarket shelves that brought down the U.S.S.R. The Russian people want improved living standards not more gigantically expensive weapon systems for show.
That is a honking ac!