Russia's extremely strange 2-seater parallel carrier-based fighter
Besides the Su-34, the Russian Navy also has in its inventory another type of fighter aircraft that also uses a cockpit structure with 2 parallel seats.
The "strange" design above belongs to the Su-27KUB trainer-fighter aircraft, also known as the Su-33UB Sea Flanker.
The Su-33UB was designed to train fighter pilots to fly the Su-33 (Su-27K) operating on the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, its airframe developed from the T-10K4 prototype.
Although born in 1989, due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union leading to many difficulties, it was not until April 24, 1999 that the Su-33UB made its first evaluation flight from land.
On September 6, it took off from the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov and a month later, on October 6, the Su-33 landed on this warship.
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Su-33UB (Su-27KUB) trainer-combat fighter of the Russian Navy. |
Compared to the Su-33, the Su-33UB has many changes in the fuselage, its cockpit is 1.6 m wider to accommodate instructors and student pilots, providing a very good field of view. This is especially important because take-off and landing on aircraft carriers is more complicated and potentially risky than operating on land.
In addition, the tail and canard wings of the Su-33UB are also significantly larger. However, the aircraft's maneuverability is not affected, this carrier-based fighter can still perform many very complex maneuvers.
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The unique parallel cockpit of the Su-33UB. |
The Su-33UB's main sensor is the Phazotron Zhuk passive phased array radar (instead of the traditional NIIP N-001), accompanied by an OEPS/OLS-27 optical positioning system located in the center of the nose.
The aircraft is equipped with Saturn Al-31FU 2D thrust vector control (2D TVC) engines to support ski-jump takeoffs, as the Su-33UB's forward fuselage is significantly heavier than the Su-33.
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Su-33UB testing take-off and landing on the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov. |
Although mass production was planned at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association (KnAAPO), unfortunately due to Russia's economic difficulties in the post-Soviet period, the plan did not come true.
In addition, the Russian Navy is gradually replacing the Su-33 carrier-based fighter with the MiG-29K, making the production of additional Su-33UBs redundant.
If Russia wants to take full advantage of its potential, it can only sell the design to China because its navy still uses a lot of J-15s - a copy of the Su-33.
According to Baodatviet
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