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AndrewJ

Junior Member
Registered Member
I'm also feeling strange & unsatisfied about Russia's display arrangement. :(

Why always showcase a T-50-4 prototype with poor craftsmanship on airshow? Don't they have a better-looking serial production aircraft? I know the total quantity is fairly low, and they're in an intense war with Ukraine. But even a single in-service aircraft can't be spared out? Do Russia even care about PR, or just their available/flyable Su-57s are far less than we expected?

If they sent a better plane, PR would be easier, also clients would be more willing to buy.
 
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siegecrossbow

General
Staff member
Super Moderator
I'm also feeling strange & unsatisfied about Russia's display arrangement. :(

Why always showcase a T-50-4 prototype with poor craftsmanship on airshow? Don't they have a better-looking serial production aircraft? I know the total quantity is fairly low, and they're in an intense war with Ukraine. But even a single in-service aircraft can't be spared out? Do Russia even care about PR, or just their available/flyable Su-57s are far less than we expected?

If they sent a better plane, PR would be easier, also clients would be more willing to buy.

My understanding is that prototypes not encumbered by radar/electronics used in frontline aircraft fly better. If you want optimal aerobatics you save as much weight as possible.
 

sheogorath

Colonel
Registered Member
My understanding is that prototypes not encumbered by radar/electronics used in frontline aircraft fly better. If you want optimal aerobatics you save as much weight as possible.
As far as we know T-50-4 is the only prototype with an almost full avionics suite and the first one made from the start with the revised reinforced structures, which is why it gets sent to airshows.
 

Lethe

Captain

Someone doesn’t understand that superior QC takes time…

That is a remarkable video, though the added music makes it even more difficult to parse what is being said. Clearly Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh knew he was being recorded and so there is a performative aspect to his words, but that he is motivated to give that performance is itself suggestive of the dysfunctional relationship between IAF, HAL, ADA, et al. For me the most telling line was his assertion that "I am an outsider, in your system I am nobody."

ACM A.P. Singh also says that he was promised that eleven LCA Mk. IA aircraft would be ready minus the engine (still awaiting delivery from GE), but that not a single aircraft is ready, which puts a rather different spin on the recent triumphant unveiling of multiple airframes scheduled to begin delivery from March:

GjWa-CIaYAAQrW2.jpg
 
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vincent

Grumpy Old Man
Staff member
Moderator - World Affairs
It is just so NDTV to call an AMCA mockup a prototype. Not only that, they are calling AMCA a "5.5 generation" fighter.

According to the Project Director of AMCA. This 1:1 model is not a "display model", but an "engineering model". He further explains that an "engineering model", is not for display (what?), but for engineering tests. It was apparently made with aircraft-grade materials.
So if that thing belongs in a lab, why display it at Aero India, fully painted and kitted out? Why not just display a mockup, which is far cheaper to make?
Indians design the most fugly aircrafts. Although the AMCA model is less so than LCA.
 
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