Sukhoi Su-57 - New General Megathread for the 1st-3rd of November 2024
The Sukhoi Su-57 is a twin-engine stealth multirole fighter aircraft developed by Sukhoi. It is the product of the PAK FA (Russian: ПАК ФА, prospective aeronautical complex of front-line aviation) programme, which was initiated in 1999 as a more modern and affordable alternative to the MFI (Mikoyan Project 1.44/1.42). Sukhoi's internal designation for the aircraft is T-50. The Su-57 is the first aircraft in Russian military service designed with stealth technology and is intended to be the basis for a family of stealth combat aircraft.
A multirole fighter capable of aerial combat as well as ground and maritime strike, the Su-57 incorporates stealth, supermaneuverability, supercruise, integrated avionics and large payload capacity. The aircraft is expected to succeed the MiG-29 and Su-27 in the Russian military service and has also been marketed for export.
After repeated delays, the first Su-57 entered service with the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) in December 2020.
Origins
In 1979, the Soviet Union outlined a need for next-generation fighter aircraft intended to enter service in the 1990s. The programme became the I-90 (Russian: И-90, short for: Истребитель 1990–х годов, lit. 'Fighter of the 1990s') and required the fighter to be "multifunctional" (i.e. multirole) by having substantial ground attack capabilities, and would eventually replace the MiG-29 and Su-27 in frontline tactical aviation service.
Though not a participant in the MFI, Sukhoi started its own programme in 1983 to develop technologies for a next-generation fighter, eventually resulting in the forward-swept wing S-32 experimental aircraft, later redesignated S-37 and then Su-47.
Due to a lack of funds after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the MFI was repeatedly delayed and the first flight of the MiG 1.44/1.42 prototype did not occur until 2000, nine years behind schedule.
Because of Russia's financial difficulties, the programme aimed to rein in costs by producing a single multirole fifth-generation fighter that would replace both the Su-27 and the MiG-29. Further cost-saving measures include an intended size in between that of the Su-27 and the MiG-29 and normal takeoff weight considerably smaller than the MiG MFI's 28.6 tonnes (63,000 lb) and the Su-47's 26.8 tonnes (59,000 lb).
In April 2002, the Ministry of Defence selected Sukhoi over Mikoyan as the winner of the PAK FA competition and the lead design bureau of the new aircraft. In addition to the merits of the proposal, Sukhoi's experience in the 1990s was taken into account, with the successful development of various Su-27 derivatives and numerous exports ensuring its financial stability.
Design
The Su-57 is a fifth-generation multirole fighter aircraft and the first operational stealth aircraft for the Russian armed forces. In addition to stealth, the fighter emphasizes supermaneuverability in all aircraft axes, capacious internal payload bays for multirole versatility, and advanced sensor systems such as active phased-array radar as well as the integration of these systems to achieve high levels of automation
The aircraft has a wide blended wing body fuselage with two widely spaced engines and has all-moving horizontal and vertical stabilisers, with the vertical stabilisers canted for stealth; the trapezoid wings have leading edge flaps, ailerons, and flaperons. The aircraft incorporates thrust vectoring and large leading edge root extensions that shift the aerodynamic center forward, increasing static instability and maneuverability.
Designed from the outset as a multirole aircraft, the Su-57 has substantial internal payload capacity that allows the carriage of multiple large air-to-surface ordnance. Weapons are housed in two tandem main weapons bays in the large ventral volume between the widely spaced engine nacelles and smaller side bays with bulged triangular-section fairings near the wing root.
The first aircraft in Russian military service to emphasize stealth, the Su-57 employs a variety of methods to reduce its radar signature. Similar to other stealth fighters such as the F-22, the aircraft aligns the planform edges to reduce its radar cross-section (RCS); the leading and trailing edges of the wings and control surfaces and the serrated edges of skin panels are carefully angled to reduce the number of directions the radar waves can be reflected. Weapons are carried internally in weapons bays within the airframe and antennas are recessed from the surface of the skin to preserve the aircraft's stealthy shape, while radar absorbent material (RAM) coatings absorb radar emissions and reduce the reflection back to the source.
As with other stealth fighters, the Su-57's low observability measures are chiefly effective against super-high-frequency (between 3 and 30 GHz) radars, usually found on other aircraft. The effects of Rayleigh scattering and resonance mean that low-frequency radars, employed by weather radars and early-warning radars are more likely to detect the Su-57 due to its size.
I was "doomscrolling" through climate news and had a shower thought:
Coral are dying because it's too insufferably hot for them to live.
90% of warming is going into the oceans.
The coral aren't fragile, they're experiencing 9x the heating that we are.
Imagine us surface dwellers with 9x the climate change we've already experienced in our own lifetimes. (I don't know about you but when I compare to my childhood or even 10 years ago the difference is pretty clear.) I would be a goner!
Most of the changes I have noticed from climate change are directly influenced by warmer oceans. Hurricanes and cyclones and even the less dramatic weather fluctuations are driven by changing sea temperatures.
They can't sweat, either. idk if they have any way to thermoregulate, but I'm pretty sure they can't do our upright savannah ape thing of excreting water to take advantage of evaporative cooling.
Afaik, with clothes and sweating, humans are one of hte most adaptable animals in terms of ability to survive extremes of temperature.
They live in a giant body of water - I'm pretty sure their "sweating" mechanism is called ocean currents! lol
But yeah, humans are remarkably adaptable compared to other species and technology can go a long way toward improving that. (Which is great for us right up until we outsurvive our food sources.)
Speaking of evaporative cooling, though, it also breaks down for us when the humidity is too high and unfortunately the standard for survivable wet bulb temperatures was recently revised downward for all ages. Many regions are already pressing right up against these lethal limits - due to warming combined with the increased atmospheric humidity that results from that warming. I still believe deaths were massively undercounted during the Indian heat wave a few years back.