At the MAKS-2011 air show, a new fifth-generation fighter will be presented to the general public for the first time, said Mikhail Pogosyan, head of the Sukhoi corporation.
“Next year, at the MAKS air show, the public will be able to see how a fifth generation fighter flies,” ITAR-TASS quoted Poghosyan as saying.
At present, a complex of preliminary ground and flight operations has been fully completed, in which all three prototypes of the aircraft were involved, on which bench, strength tests, ground testing of fuel systems and other work to support the flight test program were carried out, Poghosyan noted.
As the newspaper VZGLYAD previously reported, since 2016, the Ministry of Defense is going to serially purchase aircraft of the fifth generation - PAK FA.
“With this machine, the sequence is as follows,” explained Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Popovkin. - While we are testing one device. By the end of this year, another plane should appear. During 2011-2012 we plan to complete all tests of the PAK FA airframe. And in 2013 we will conclude a contract for an initial batch of ten aircraft to test the entire range of aircraft weapons. To confirm its tactical and technical characteristics, it is necessary to perform about 3 thousand flights. If the work was carried out with only two machines, it would have taken ten years,”Popovkin said.
“We hope to complete the first stage of testing by the end of 2013. And from 2016, we will begin the serial purchase of already fully tested vehicles, together with aviation weapons and ground-based technological equipment,”he summed up. At the moment, the Air Force's needs for aircraft of this type are estimated at 50–100 aircraft. “It is difficult to say now how much it will be possible to acquire. Everything will depend on funding. But in any case, such orders are spelled out in the new program,”he said.
