The second flight prototype of the promising front-line aviation complex (PAK FA) will begin flights by the end of 2010, said the head of the Sukhoi corporation Mikhail Pogosyan. According to him, the first flight prototype has already completed 40 flights. He added that the companies are satisfied with the progress of the tests.
"The test program is moving faster than we expected," Poghosyan said.
He added that negotiations with Indian partners on joining this project should also be completed by the end of this year.
Russia and India have agreed to jointly develop and build a fifth-generation aircraft, which made its maiden flight in January this year. It is assumed that two versions of this combat vehicle will be created - one and two. A framework contract for the creation of a fifth generation fighter was signed earlier. The costs are planned to be distributed approximately equally. Russia and India plan to create a fifth generation fighter by 2015-2016 (T-50 is the Russian version of the aircraft). It is assumed that the new generation fighter will begin to enter the Russian troops in 2015 (in a single version), and by 2020 it will appear in the Indian Air Force.
The T-50 is a fifth-generation heavy-class fighter with a take-off weight of over 30 tonnes, of medium dimension (roughly corresponding to the Su-27 aircraft), which is a monoplane with widely spaced engines and two keels strongly deflected outward from the longitudinal axis. The glider's exterior is designed using stealth technologies.
