Su-47 Berkut
The forward-swept wing demonstrator: one aircraft, built to prove a wing that wants to tear itself off.
- Forward-swept wings
- Composite structure
- One built
- Extreme low-speed control
Specification
- Origin
- Russia
- Manufacturer
- Sukhoi
- Role
- Air superiority
- Generation
- 5
- Introduced
- 1997
- Combat type
- Air
- Spawn code
- berkut
On the server
The Su-47 first flew in September 1997 and only one was ever built. Its wings sweep forward instead of back, a layout that gives excellent lift and control authority at low speed and high angle of attack, but which twists the wing under load in a way that gets worse the harder you pull. Metal wings cannot survive that, so the Berkut used tailored composite skins whose fibres resist the twist. It served as a flying laboratory for the technologies that later fed into the Su-57 rather than as a prototype fighter. On MCS the Berkut is a low speed specialist. Down where other fighters are mushy and unresponsive it still answers the stick precisely, which wins slow scissors and rolling fights outright. It has no stealth and its top end is unremarkable. Recommended for pilots who deliberately drag fights down into the slow regime.