Stunning image of two Russian T-50 stealth planes during weapon integration tests

June 2, 2014 Russia, Troubled Areas

David Cenciotti

T-50 053 and 054 take off with external weapons during a test flight

On May 20, Sukhoi T-50 (PAK FA – Perspektivny Aviatsionny Kompleks Frontovoy Aviatsii—Future Tactical Air System) program entered a new phase with the external weapons integration tests.

Two aircraft are involved in the testing campaign with external stores: “053” and “054”.

Noteworhty, the two prototypes of Russia’s 5th generation stealth fighter plane, still wearing the standard color scheme and not the brand new “shark” camouflage, carried: R-73 short range air-to-air missile and R-77 medium range, air-to-air, active radar-guided missile system (T-50 “053”); KH-31 antiship missile and R-77 air-to-air missile (“054”).

Image credit: Alazan / Russianplanes.net

H/T to Antonio Valencia for the heads-up.

About David Cenciotti

David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

CC says:

June 19, 2014 at 3:59 PM

Stealth materials were first invented by germans in WW1 and the first ‘modern’ stealth aircraft is the Horten Ho 229 aircraft of Nazi Germany

Americans captured several prototypes but couldn’t complete the puzzle until a a Russian scientist named Petr Ufimtsev the true father of stealth technology invented equations for predicting the reflection of electromagnetic waves from simple two-dimensional shapes.And other stealth related stuff

Americans used his work to create stealth aircrafts and soviets created the Mikoyan Project 1.44 but due to Lack of funds and political crisis the first prototype came 9 years later(after the fall of USSR) but couldn’t reach completion.USSR was also working on the Su-47

Russians later started making MIG Skat Stealth UCAV, Sukhoi PAK FA, MIG LMFS using Soviet era experiance
- Chad Fancher says:
  
  August 20, 2015 at 6:42 PM
  
  What kind of stealth are you referring to because RADAR didnt even come along until WW2
Shoshi says:

June 27, 2014 at 9:03 AM

There are almost 200 Raptors in service…
Jean Valette says:

September 26, 2015 at 9:09 AM

It isn`t designed to be 360 degree stealthy but to have some frontal stealth capabilities. To me it looks like a giant killer – made to target specifically high value aricraft such as the AWACS, ECM and tankers, at least considering what its internal bays are designed to carry. I doubt it will have orders to engage F-22 or F-35 in open combat. Indeed, the internal bays mean one thing – the former two would have smaller fuel tanks where the F-35`s design uses the fuel as coolant for key components so it may carry more but at the same time higher chance of a fuel leak.