Thanks for reporting so much in 2014!!

The Indians can be real clowns when it comes to procurement. Hide behind calls for independence. Allow viral bureaucracy. The Czechs were trying to find a home for L-159 and it wasn’t like the choice wasn’t better than what India designed indigenously for far bigger money outlays. Ironically they now aim to use F125 engines, which are from the same source as L-129’s F124. They could have bought several off the shelf supersonic-class two-seat fighters for training up to flying their Su-30MKI, even going for something both similar and affordable like MiG-29UBK.

The petty political scandals really sabotage their procurement programs, training and operations alike.

At this point they are better off with long range missiles considering anything they would fly will be on one way trips.

MiG-21bis has had better climb rate and roll rate, a dogfight with a Draken against a MiG-21bis overwhelmingly ended up with 23mm rounds up the J35’s tail. The MiG-21bis was also better in high altitudes while the Draken was better at lo-lo environment.

Great pic. MiG-21 was a great plane for its role, but it was also riddled with flaws. MiG-21bis threw more power at old problems.. I was saying Drakens against Starfighters, though. So it wasn’t really any reason to worry how it fared against MiG-21bis, the sportscar version of Fishbed. 🙂

Does it?
Its not like the Flanker is slow and dragie, like the SH and F-35 design.
Getting the T-50 all moving stabz would be nice, but its not gonna happend.
It could undermine the prospect of t-50 market share.
And i think the Su-35s is exspensive enough.

The air to air missiles that gained huge leaps in range did it two ways, clipping the wings AND ballistic trajectories. The latter had the bigger effect, but the former had to happen for the latter to make large strides. Su-27 family aircraft won’t be flying ballistic paths anytime soon, but they could use the decrease in drag to justify lighter fuel loads for combat. The Su-27 family has always enjoyed tremendous pitch control surfaces. Flight control computers were supposed to eliminate the need for tall rudders and ventral strakes. Eliminating them would certainly help lessen drag. The smaller angled rudders of F-15SE were supposed to give modest gains for the same reasons.

Excellent photo !!!
The first time I have seen the differential rudders being used as airbrakes.
Ken

I like the elimination of the dorsal airbrake.

However, it would be nice to see them move to T-50 style all moving rudders. I realize it’s pie in the sky, but it would eliminate some drag and the control surfaces are larger and quicker than on Su-27 family.

Or atmospheric effects on lasers will make it a fair weather weapon and battles will continue to be raged during the most inclement times. Victory goes most often to those that earn the initiative.