Sukhoi Su-35BM [Су – 35]
The impressive Su-35S is the latest incarnation of the T-10 family of fighter aircraft. It would be fair to describe this aircraft as the pinnacle of current conventional fighter design, blending a superb basic aerodynamic design with advanced engine, flight control and avionic technology. The designation Su-35 has been applied to two basic Flanker configurations since 1991. The first aircraft to carry the Su-35 label was the early 1990s digital T-10M/Su-27M Flanker E, powered by the Al-31FM engine and fitted with the Tikhomirov NIIP N011 planar array radar. Export configurations were designated Su-35. This aircraft was used as the basis of the Su-37 Flanker F advanced technology demonstrator, often labelled as the Super Flanker. The Su-37 was used as a platform to prove a modern glass cockpit, the N011M BARS PESA radar, thrust vector control engines and a quadruplex digital flgiht control system with an electrical sidestick controller. Much of the technology proven on the Su-37 migrated into the Su-30MKI/MKM Flanker H exported to Asia. The current Su-35S, ordered in 2009 for the Russian Air Force, was the result of a series of design studies for a deep modernisation of the Su-27M design. This was actually more of a deep re-engineering of the basic design in the manner of the F-15E against the F-15C performed during the 1980s. The new Su-35BM retained the basic aerodynamic design and much of the structural design of the late model Flanker, but sees important aerodynamic <b>…</b>
