The extensive measures taken by Sukhoi, as reported by the latter, to hide the engine face, were all cooked up! We know full well, that only the USA and EU can mask engine faces. This concept is far, FAR beyond anything Russia can do today. 🙁
Yup, the Chief Designer is a LIAR!!….and that ‘device’ looks like this:
…that’s if you’re an Intellectually Compromised Fraudulent Troll, that is.
I don’t think that Russian Navy will consider the Gepard 5.3 because they are having project 20380/20382. Vietnamese Navy might be interest though, they are planning to buy the next 2 Gepard which will be armed with Club-N/Yakhont and better air defense.
Gepard 3.9s of the Vietnamese Navy:
OK, here goes. Basically this is a case of side mirrors’ ‘Objects may be closer than they appear’. I don’t believe the photo’s a fake.
Well clearly it’s not the 117 comp.-face due to dimensions, alignment, that long spinner etc. The key is how far into the inlet the device is located, so here’s my take.
What everybody missed thus far is that the front section of the intake has a pronounced ‘droop’ in it (see pics below), reminiscent of the YF-23’s droop. This ‘droop’ will appear as a ‘trough’ in the now infamous ‘PAK-FA in the night’ pic- it will give an illusory sense of distance.
The trough is why you can’t see the air-bleed louvres (actually you can just make out the last line)- which means that device is far nearer to the intake entrance than previously thought- actually in-line with that hole/bulge speculated wheel bay placement- i.e. before the MLG structure, just over 2 metres from the intake’s lower lip.
This puts it ~2.5m infront of the real comp.face- incidentally the same distance djcross stated would be required for the S-duct (but remember, this is not a full-on S-duct).
I now believe that device is some sort of combined air-flow management/FOD screen. Your thoughts?
Sign In
