"MiG-35" Flatpack / 1.42 Multirole Front-Line Fighter [MFI] - Design
The MFI fighter was created as a counterweight to the Lockheed-Martin F-22A Raptor (ATF), Eurofighter EF2000 Typhoon and Dassault Rafale aircraft. According to experts from the Air Force Research Institute, the Russian fighter outperforms the best foreign counterpart - the F-22A - in terms of flight performance and aerobatic characteristics, as well as overall combat effectiveness. In particular, the widespread use of means of reducing radar signature made it possible to reduce the RCS of the aircraft to a level lower than that of the "Raptor" -. At the same time, the Russian aircraft has higher speed, altitude, acceleration and maneuverability characteristics, which is ensured, in particular, by the aircraft's uniquely high thrust-to-weight ratio (1.4 compared to 1.15 for the Raptor).
It should be noted that the Russian Air Force's need for a long-range heavy fighter is due to the country's geographic location - the need to cover vast areas of the North and Siberia from the air, which do not have a developed ground infrastructure. Therefore, unlike European countries that have made the final choice in favor of a one-component fleet of fighter aircraft, it is vitally important for Russia to maintain a two-component structure, including a light, cheap and massive multipurpose front-line aircraft with a high export potential, as well as a heavy fighter designed mainly for “ internal use and countering the American F-22.
Its main features were to be:
- super-maneuverability [sverhmanevrennost] as a multi-mode maneuverable fifth-generation fighter aircraft associated with a qualitative improvement in aerodynamic performance compared to fourth-generation aircraft.
- capability [sposobnost] for supersonic flight without afterburning [besforsazhny] mode to reduce the infrared signature;
- Small radar and thermal signature;
- Improved takeoff and landing characteristics;
- Significant reduction in the cost of flight hour, the number of technical staff, the volume and weight of the non-standard equipment, required for the maintenance of the aircraft;
- New architecture of complex avionics, structure information and control field of the cockpit, a high degree of integration.
Together with the works of the multifunctional frontline fighter based on the basic design options were studied reconnaissance aircraft, fighter ship-based, and other modifications. The prototype tactical fighter P-37 (Sukhoi) flew September 25, 1997, and the MiG 1.42 project at this point and did not take off.
The MAPO-MiG enterprise claimed the new fighter would be able to outperform the F-22 Raptor, the most advanced US air-superiority fighter. Although the primary mission of the MFI is air-superiority, unlike the F-22 the MFI is also capable of performing strike mission, and thus in both conception and configuration is more directly comparable to the similar multi-role EFA2000 Eurofighter. Like the American F-22, the MFI has a thrust vectoring system that allows it to make sharp turns. It also has similar stealth capabilities, with the canard, wing and fuselage structures incorporating carbon-fiber and polymer composite materials. Other stealth features include radar-absorbing covering, screening of radar-visible structure elements, and reduced heat signature. The fifth-generation pulse-doppler radar has a phased-array andtenna with electronic scanning to simultaneously attack over 20 targets. The aircraft can carry long-range air-to-air and air-to-surface guided missiles, and it is armed with a 30-mm cannon.
The 35-ton fighter features a single under-fuselage air intake with two AL41F engines of 20 tons thrust each, and a top speed of over 2,500 km/h. The twin-tail "duck" planform features an all-moving canard-type foreplane with a wingspan of about 15 meters and a length of about 20 meters.
The plane, which was planned to install engines with thrust vector control AL-41F. Designed as a counterweight to the American fighter F-22, and for a variety of performance superior to its American rival. It had extensive use of stealth technologies. All aircraft armament was placed inside the machine. Covered by special coverings, the keels in the aircraft have been created in a special way of curved surfaces, significantly reduces the ESR (radar cross-section) of the aircraft.
Airplane "1.44" is made according to the aerodynamic "duck" configuration with a mid-wing, two-fin vertical tail, all-turning forward horizontal tail (FGO) of a relatively large area, as well as transverse controls in the tail section of the aircraft. The wing, fuselage and empennage, in combination with the engine thrust control system and an integrated control system, form a single aerodynamic structure adaptive to flight modes, providing extremely high aerodynamic quality for maneuverable supersonic aircraft at subsonic and supersonic modes.
The airframe is made with a wide use of large-sized structures made of composite materials based on carbon fiber and polymers (26% by weight), as well as aluminum-lithium alloys, new grades of high-strength stainless steels, titanium alloys.
Means of reducing radar and thermal signature are widely used (airframe configuration, radio-absorbing materials and coatings, shielding of radar-contrasting structural elements, etc.). The nose of the fuselage has a cross-section close to elliptical. A number of surfaces have ribbing to reduce the RCS.
The fuselage of the aircraft is made to ensure the minimum surface to be washed and the minimum midsections. For this purpose, the air intakes of the power plant, located under the head of the fuselage, are as close as possible to each other and form a single nacelle. The engines are also as close as possible. The rods of the main and auxiliary (for the period of testing) air pressure receivers are installed on the front of the nose cone. The cockpit is equipped with a canopy with a movable part opening in a plane-parallel up-and-back movement, which should provide a lower "windage" of the canopy in the parking lot and taxiing.
The aircraft canopy is two-section, similar in configuration to that of the MiG-29 fighter. The lantern smoothly passes into the mainsail, ending in the area of ??the engine nozzles with a drain. In the central part of the fuselage are the main fuel tanks, S-shaped air channels of the engines and retraction niches of the main landing gear. The ventral air intakes are supersonic, adjustable. The air intake nacelle has a niche for cleaning the front landing gear.
The triangular wing has a straight leading edge without sagging, equipped with a two-piece adaptive deflecting nose. Mechanization of the rectilinear trailing edge of each wing includes two-section elevons. Each wing console is equipped with a developed rear inflow with an additional multifunctional control surface and a power keel beam, which houses the electronic equipment. The consoles of the vertical tail and under-beam ridges are attached to the keel beam. On the lower surface of each wing console there are nodes for the installation of pylons for the external suspension of weapons.
Front horizontal tail - all-moving. It is located above the wing chord plane. There is a vortex-forming "fang" on its toe. PGO is used not only as an airplane aerodynamic control body. When flying at high angles of attack, it, together with the wing, participates in the creation of lift. In the tail section of the aircraft, between the bases of the keels and the nozzles of the engines, there are two additional control surfaces that are used as elevators.PGO
The vertical tail of the aircraft includes two widely spaced trapezoidal keels with a slight negative trailing edge sweep, equipped with rudders, and sub-beams, also equipped with rudders. The "camber" of the keels, which have a relatively small area, should help to reduce the effective reflective surface of the aircraft at the side views of exposure. The ridges are installed without camber. In total, the dynamically unstable aircraft has 16 different control surfaces (including PGO), driven by an integrated remote control system with multiple redundancy
The pilot is placed in a variable geometry ejection seat, developed by NPP "Zvezda" under the leadership of GI Severin. In combination with the new anti-overload suit, this significantly increases the pilot's efficiency in maneuvering combat with high overloads.
The aircraft landing gear is tricycle, retractable into the fuselage. On the front support there are two wheels with dimensions of 620x180 mm, on the main supports - one wheel each with dimensions of 1030x350 mm. The large diameter of the wheels of the main supports provides passability on unpaved airfields. The front landing gear retracts backward in flight into a niche in the air intake nacelle, which is closed by two side flaps. The main supports are retracted into the niches of the central part of the fuselage forward with a turn of the wheels. Each niche is closed with a pair of doors.
The possibility of an aircraft taking off from a quick-assembly springboard is allowed, which makes it possible to operate MFIs from short runways (in particular, sections of the runway that survived an enemy air raid). Powerplant The aircraft is equipped with two by-pass turbojet engines with an afterburner, AL-41F engines installed in the rear fuselage. These engines of the "twenty-ton" class with a controlled thrust vector provide the fighter with super-maneuverability in air combat throughout the entire speed range and a long cruise flight at supersonic speeds in non-afterburner mode.
The air intake is ventral, with a controlled entrance. The S-shaped ducts have a radar-absorbing lining, which provides shielding of the compressor blades of the engines. Axisymmetric steerable nozzles of engines can be deflected by angles of +15° in the vertical plane and +8° in the horizontal plane . The inner surface of their valves is covered with high-temperature ceramics.
The experimental model of the MFI aircraft had no weapons, but the combat version of the fighter will ensure the use of the entire range of guided and unguided weapons currently in service with Russian aviation, as well as promising high-precision weapons developed specifically for the 5th generation aircraft combat systems. ... The main armament option for the MFI aircraft will include RVV-AE medium-range guided missiles with active radar homing heads and R-73 melee missiles with thermal homing heads, as well as their further modifications. The possibility of using long- and ultra-long-range air-to-air missiles, which can be created on the basis of missiles ( R-37 and KS-172 ), used on the MiG-31 and MiG-31M interceptor fighters , as well as promising small range. According to press reports, the main air-to-air weapons are housed inside a conformal container suspended under the fuselage.
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