The Soviet Su-27 Maneuver That Shocked Western Pilots скачать в хорошем качестве

The Soviet Su-27 Maneuver That Shocked Western Pilots

In June 1989 at the Paris Air Show, Soviet test pilot Viktor Pugachev stunned Western engineers by performing what they believed was aerodynamically impossible. Flying the Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker, he executed the now-legendary Cobra maneuver—pitching the nose up to 110 degrees while maintaining forward flight, essentially flying the massive fighter backwards for a split second before recovering. This wasn't just an airshow trick; it was a demonstration of post-stall supermaneuverability that shattered Western assumptions about fighter design. This video explores the complex engineering behind Pugachev's Cobra: the intentionally unstable airframe design, the fly-by-wire system that makes it controllable, the AL-31F engines that refuse to flame out at extreme angles of attack, and how thrust vectoring on the Su-35 evolved the maneuver even further. We examine the fierce debate between energy fighters and angles fighters—is the Cobra a suicide move that bleeds all your speed, or a legitimate tactic in modern within-visual-range combat with high-off-boresight missiles? Finally, we trace its legacy, from influencing the F-22 Raptor's design to changing how the world thinks about air superiority. The Cobra maneuver proved that mastery of aerodynamics could unlock capabilities beyond traditional energy-maneuverability theory, and that Soviet engineers weren't just copying the West—they were charting their own path into the unknown.