THE FIGHTER JET THAT FIGHTS FOR BOTH SIDES

摘要

The powerful Sukhoi Su-27 has patrolled Ukrainian skies for 35 years; at first, as a Soviet fighter to counter the threat posed by the U.S. F-15 Eagle and today, as a Ukrainian air force interceptor protecting its airspace from Russian Su-27s and other fighters. The Flanker, as NATO named it, debuted in the West at the 1989 Paris Air Show, four years after it entered service. Test pilot Viktor Pugachev stunned the crowd with his signature "cobra" maneuver, pitching his sky-blue Sukhoi up to beyond vertical and skidding it forward on its tail, proving the fighter's super-maneuverability. The Soviet air force 1969 specification for its new fighter design boiled down to this: Outperform the F-15. The first attempts failed, and chief designer Mikhail Simonov took a radical step. He halted development in 1977, and began again, virtually from scratch. As Simonov said, "We kept just the tires and the pilot's seat."