You’re right, from an economic point of view, NATO would win. I was speakiing from the technical point of view of the ease of manufacture, ruggedness and maintainability of the WP platforms.

Its how the Soviets won WW2 despite the lack of a vibrant economy.

That is not the main reason for the Soviets’ victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. And what is this with this stereotype, of “the ease of manufacture, ruggedness and maintainability of the WP platforms”?

Nope.. The T-50 uses Izd.117 engine which is another designation for Al-41F1, an upgraded variant of the Al-41F from the MiG 1.44 project and has an entirely new core with different high and low pressure turbines, as well as more advanced FADEC.

You believe that 117 engine is a further development of the MiG 1.44 AL-41 (some sort of variable-bypass-ratio tech, like on the F-23 powerplant) – sure about that? pretty certain its a development of the AL-31 as is the Su-35’s ‘117’?

No they don’t. Can this myth die already?
And they don’t share engines either.

You could argue the 117S is closer to AL-31FP, than it is to the new Type 30.

The T-50 and Su-35 are both flying with essentially the same engines today. The T-50 should fly with a new engine design in the future.

Thanks for linking that. I missed it, not being a regular on ModMil

Moggy

well, it was eight years ago. No harm raising the topic again if you see fit.

How is it Sputnik’s fault when they are quoting Debka?

It’s their fault exactly because they quoted ‘DEBKA, perhaps?

(Hey, don’t blame me, I’m only quoting the National Enquirer…)

No, the article Tango posted (and you quoted) mentioned an RPG shoot down of the Cougar helicopter on May 1st – third paragraph from the bottom.
But here is another link confirming the RPG kill by Mexican authorities:

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2015/05/jalisco-photos-ruins-of-military.html

edit – I see where the confusion lies. The Mexican authorities did initially describe the Cougar shootdown as a ‘forced landing’ – they pretty soon changed their story when the facts became clearer.

On the contrary to the Cougar earlier

Maybe it’s because the Cougar was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade (a primary killer of helicopters these days) while the blackhawk was only hit by 7 bullets – it’s written in the article given.

I personally think that the T/W, wing loading or thrust figures say roughly as much about flying qualities of an aircraft as bhp, torque and weight fiugures say about sports cars. They are useful indicators but don’t provide the overall information… the true know-how is in the details, fine balancing, aerodynamics and emotional value… on the paper, the Camaro ZL1 appears every bit as good as F458 Speciale and greatly superior to Carrera GT3… nothing can be further from the truth..

The Camaro is sold new for $56 thousand, the F458 Speciale sell for $288 thousand – and hundreds of thousands of the Chevys have been produced. I think that’s the most important contrast one should make. It’s also a comparison that has similar meaning when comparing combat aircraft – wars are fought with the hardware that’s actually available to the combatants – hardware they can pay for, or are willing to pay for.