20 years have passed since the management of ANPK (today RSK) MiG presented to the public its new prototype of a multifunctional front-line fighter - MFI. This machine first received the code 1.42, and later became better known as the MiG 1.44. The presentation of this aircraft took place in Zhukovsky near Moscow at the Gromov Flight Testing Institute. This event became one of the main and brightest for the Russian aviation at the turn of the late 1990s and early 2000s. There is nothing strange in this, because the aircraft, which, when launched into mass production, should have received the MiG-35 index, was an experimental prototype of a fifth generation fighter.
Then the first persons of the state were present at the demonstration of the fighter: Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev, Economy Minister Andrei Shapovalyants, Presidential Aide Yevgeny Shaposhnikov and Russian Air Force Commander-in-Chief Anatoly Kornukov. Hero of the Russian Federation, test pilot Vladimir Gorbunov rolled out the new plane to the guests gathered at the Gromov Flight Research Institute. The public display of the new fighter was timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the famous Mikoyan design bureau and was originally conceived as a real holiday.
From the moment of the first public display to the first flight of an experimental fighter jet, very little time passed. For the first time, the MiG 1.44 fighter took off on February 29, 2000. The first flight of the new aircraft lasted 18 minutes and was in full accordance with the flight mission. During the flight, the fighter gained an altitude of 1000 meters and flew two circles over the airfield of the Flight Research Institute at a speed of about 500-600 km / h, after which it successfully landed. After the completion of the flight, honored test pilot Vladimir Gorbunov noted: “the flight, which we all have been waiting for for so long, went surprisingly routinely, the plane behaved obediently, although, of course, in terms of its aerobatic qualities we have a fundamentally new machine, work on which is still ahead . The words of the RSK MiG chief pilot did not become prophetic, already in 2002 work on the project was completely stopped, and the only prototype built is today in storage at the airfield in Zhukovsky near Moscow, neighboring here with other exhibits of domestic aviation technology.
MiG 1.44
Although the MiG specialists called their aircraft an absolutely new aircraft, like any samples of modern aviation technology, it managed to go a long way in its creation. The first work on the project of a new front-line fighter started back in the USSR at the end of the 1970s, when, in general terms, all the requirements that the military imposed on the fighters of the future were defined. These included multifunctionality, stealth in all spectra of observation, super-maneuverability and the ability to fly at cruising supersonic speed. The first general features of the future aircraft took shape in the early 1980s.
In fact, the set of requirements for a new combat aircraft was a set of requirements for fifth-generation aircraft. Around the same time, the main geopolitical enemy of the Soviet Union began work on the creation of a promising tactical fighter ATF (Advanced Tactical Fighter). In the USA, work on such an aircraft started in 1983, and already in 1986, the US Air Force determined the winners of the competition, among which were Lockheed and Northrop, which were to submit prototypes of future combat vehicles for testing. The winner of this competition was Lockheed, which presented the fifth generation fighter, indexed F-22 Raptor. The first pre-production model took to the skies in 1997, and already in 2001, the F-22 was launched into serial production, which became the first fifth-generation fighter to enter service. A total of 187 production aircraft were produced, which are in service with the US Air Force.
The economic crisis of 2008 and the very high cost of the F-22 fighter forced the US government to abandon further purchases of this aircraft (according to the original plan, it was planned to build 750 Raptors), focusing on the program to create a new stealthy multi-functional F-35 fighter-bombers family. Many countries were involved in the development of the aircraft, which was supposed to become a unified fighter-bomber of NATO countries, which also invested in this project. At the same time, in the 1990s, the new MFI fighter, created by the specialists of RAC MiG, could be considered a potential competitor of the American F-22. Another thing is that the crisis that broke out in the country, the collapse of the USSR and the almost real collapse of the entire economy made the prospect of the first domestic fifth-generation fighter very vague.
F-22 Raptor
The MiG 1.44 was a single-seat monoplane, made according to the "duck" scheme with a two-fin tail. According to the classification adopted in our country, the plane was close to a heavy fighter. Among the few officially published characteristics of the aircraft, they singled out a length of 20 meters, a wingspan of 15 meters and a maximum take-off weight of about 30 tons. In the design of the new aircraft, polymer composites and carbon fiber reinforced plastic were widely used, the share of which in the total mass of the structure was supposed to be about 30 percent. In this regard, it should be noted that at that time the idea of the comprehensive use of composite materials was replaced by the idea of their reasonable sufficiency. For the MiG 1.44 of them, it was planned to produce wing panels, hatch covers and flaps, front horizontal tail. The novelties of this project could also be attributed to the widespread use of light and durable aluminum-lithium alloys in the aircraft structure, the share of which was supposed to be 35 percent, steel and titanium accounted for another 30 percent, and the remaining 5 percent for other materials (glass, rubber, etc. etc.). It is worth noting that the F-22 Raptor underwent similar design changes at one time, the creators of which decided to reduce the use of the proportion of composite materials, changing them to steel and titanium.
The AL-41F engines with thrust vector control, developed by the designers of NPO Saturn, were to become the heart of the new aircraft. Started in 1982, this aviation high-temperature turbojet afterburner engine was originally designed for the fifth generation aircraft. The engine allowed the aircraft to develop supersonic cruising flight speed without the use of afterburner. The declared maximum speed of the MiG 1.44 fighter was supposed to be Mach 2, 6, and the cruising speed was about Mach 1, 4. In addition, the new combat aircraft was supposed to receive a modern on-board radar with an active phased antenna array and a fly-by-wire digital control system.
The aircraft was equipped with a ventral air intake, which was divided into two sections (each had to serve its own engine). The air intakes had an upper adjustable horizontal wedge and a lower deflectable lip, which ensured smooth regulation of the air flow at the inlet (the American F-22 fighter had unregulated air intakes optimized for supersonic flight). The location of the air intakes from the bottom was advantageous in terms of the high maneuverability presented to the new aircraft, allowing the aircraft to avoid stalling the flow when making intense maneuvers in turns and exits to large angles of attack.
MiG 1.44 in four projections
The reduction in the radar signature of the aircraft in the general case achieved by the layout of the machine and the radio-absorbing coating of surfaces in the MiG 1.44 fighter could only be assessed by the specific design solutions provided by the specialists of the MiG Design Bureau, reducing the EPR, and shielding a number of aircraft units that are especially noticeable in this spectrum. At the same time, the aircraft never received coverage that was not necessary for the initial flight tests of the future fighter. At the same time, it is now obvious that a number of decisions related to the individual characteristics of the project do not fit well enough with the modern requirements that apply to ways to reduce the RCS and are relevant for fifth-generation aircraft, for example, the lower keels of the MiG 1.44, which played the role of corner reflectors.
In RSK MiG they said that one of the achievements in the development of a new multifunctional front-line fighter was that the possibility of placing weapons inside the aircraft body was realized. This step was also aimed at solving the problem of low visibility of the machine. At the same time, not all of its arsenal could be accommodated in the internal compartments of the fighter, therefore, the aircraft design also had external weapons suspension points, the use of which in combat not only reduced the fighter's stealth performance, but also did not allow the aircraft to cruise at supersonic speed. In fairness, it should be noted that the options for the external suspension of weapons were not basic and could only be used to solve limited tasks.
In total, as part of the project to create a new multifunctional front-line fighter, the MiG designers have developed the following machines:
The fighter with the code 1.42 was a prototype on which the specialists of the MiG Design Bureau worked out new technologies; in 1994, the only prototype was built, which was used for static tests.
The 1.44 fighter was a modified 1.42. This model was supposed to go into mass production and in the future to replenish the aircraft fleet of the Russian Air Force. In 1999, a single copy was built, 4 more aircraft in varying degrees of readiness were at the Sokol plant at the time the project was closed.
The fighter with the cipher 1.46 was a deep modernization of 1.44, significantly surpassing its predecessor in terms of flight characteristics. At the time the project was closed, preparations were under way for the construction of the first prototype of the aircraft. Some experts believe that some of the technologies and the general appearance of the machine were transferred to the PRC and when creating its J-20 fighter, China used the drawings of the 1.46 project, acquired from the RSK MiG. Representatives of RAC "MiG" came out with an official refutation of this information.
MiG 1.44
The MiG 1.44 fighter project was finally closed in 2002. The fault, most likely, was the intertwining of various factors. For example, at the beginning of the 2000s, the new Russian fighter was still a crude project. As the experience of developing the F-22 and F-35 has shown, it could require intensive revision for 10-15 years without a guarantee of obtaining a positive result at the output. At the same time, even then it was obvious that in terms of technology, the car lagged behind the American fifth-generation fighter Raptor. The weakness of the Russian economy, which in the early 2000s simply could not pull off such a project and the serial production of aircraft worth about $ 70 million, also played its role. Separately, there is a series of financial scandals, including corruption, that shocked the MiG enterprise in the early 2000s and could also be the reason for setting the end point in the creation of the MiG 1.44 fighter and the transfer of the task to create a fifth generation fighter to competitors represented by the Sukhoi Design Bureau.
At the same time, it is obvious that Russia needed a fifth-generation combat aircraft then, and it still needs it today. The program for the creation of the PAK FA fighter, aka T-50, aka Su-57 (officially approved designation of production vehicles), which has been implemented since the beginning of the 2000s, is also developing rather slowly. It should be noted that after 19 years since the first flight of the promising experimental MiG 1.44 fighter, Russia still does not have a single fifth-generation serial fighter in service. The first production aircraft should enter the country's Aerospace Forces in 2019, it will be the Su-57 with the first stage engine, the second production aircraft (within the framework of the contract for two vehicles signed in 2018) will be received by the Russian military already in 2020.
MiG 1.44 at MAKS-2015
At the same time, RSK MiG is promoting the MiG-35 multifunctional fighter on the market today, which has nothing to do with the MiG 1.44 project. This is not a fifth generation aircraft, but a 4 ++ generation multipurpose light fighter, which is a deep modernization of the MiG-29 fighters. State tests of the new aircraft should be completed in 2019, and the only contract at the moment is an order from the Russian Ministry of Defense. The contract was concluded within the framework of the Army-2018 forum and involves the purchase of a very small batch of 6 aircraft until 2023.
