New Russian MiG Fighter- As Virtual As It Gets

What flawed yet gorgeous product- a subject of intense media speculation and anticipation- has been recently unveiled (before it was truly ready) by its respected manufacturer in an attempt to get the funds necessary to finish the job?

No, Jet Heads, it wasn't Falcon 4…although who could refuse such a cheap shot? What I am composing horribly tortured run-on sentences about is the MiG-MAPO Article 1.42 MFI- Mother Russia's answer to Lockheed-Martin's F-22 Raptor. OK, maybe not answer…the MFI is actually more of a smart-ass comeback. And what was the question, anyway?

The Article 1.42- which refers to the MiG-MAPO internal project number- is what the Russians call their (brace yourself) Mnogofunktsionalny Frontovoi Istrebel or Multifunctional Frontline Fighter. Apparently, they figure that half of the world's air forces can be brought to their knees by merely trying to pronounce the classification. In any case, while the translated name suggests a strike capability, the primary mission of the MFI is to be air superiority.

It truly looks the part, as it displays several obvious design influences ranging from the Eurofighter Typhoon, the Dassault Rafale, and the cheesy movie prop that Clint Eastwood stole in the 1982 movie Firefox. Whatever chief designer Mikhail Korzhuev's inspiration for the MFI, her appearance alone packs a lethal punch. It also, however, begs a question. While purported to be as stealthy as the F-22, distinct details such as the MiG's gaping Typhoon-esque intake and uneven panel lines point towards a radar cross section the size of Cleveland, or at least one of it's suburbs.

There are some things MFI shares with her western rival- sheer, hulking size (both aircraft have internal weapons carriage ability), huge twin tennis court sized fins, and non-afterburning supersonic level flight or "super-cruise"- but there are some substantial differences.

While the F-22 has twin up & down, or 2-D, vectored thrust engines to enhance maneuverability, the MFI sports two AL-41V powerplants with exhaust nozzles capable of swiveling in 3-D, or all axes. With these engines nailed to the Article 1.42's canard-delta airframe, this MiG would be a world-beater in a knife fight. The 3-D vectored thrust / canard-delta configuration was first tried on the US / German X-31 Enhanced Fighter Maneuverability (EFM) testbed. A fairly small bird- about the size of an F-5- with a comparatively primitive thrust vectoring scheme using paddles in the engine exhaust, the X-31 redefined maneuverability.

I flew the EFM simulator out at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base a few years ago and wow…what a dogfighter! With a similar yet more advanced and powerful configuration, the MFI should sport the capability of taking advantage of the high-alpha (angle of attack) flight regime and rotate its nose around the velocity vector.

Couple that with a helmet mounted sight and all-aspect AA-11 Archer missiles and you have a real porcupine that would have to be clobbered from a distance. That modus operundi, incidentally, is what the F-22 is supposed to do well, as we ADF / TAW jockeys can attest to. The MFI supposed has this ability also, with a next generation radar and targeting system that can track twenty targets simultaneously. Obviously, there's Intel Inside.

All right, we've established the fact that the boys and girls at Mikoyan have built a real hot rod. So what's the deal- why aren't the skies over third world hot spots black with them? Well, it's the almighty dollar- er, ruble. You see, MiG-MAPO has been working on this airplane since those Cold War days of yore- the mid-eighties- when state money flowed freely. Now they have to compete like everybody else, and are fishing either for any scant cash the Russian government may have or a well funded partner, most likely the Chinese.

Things are so tight that this wonder bird has yet to leave the confines of terra firma, though it probably taxis like hell. As such, MAPO-MiG officials have turned up sales hyperbole that would make a used car salesman blush. MiG Press releases have made claims that range from the wildly optimistic ("If this plane was used to beat off the Anglo-American air raids on Iraq, 90% of all the launched guided weapons, including cruise missiles, would be shot down before they reached their targets…") to the flat silly (claims it could "…hover over a target for pinpoint strike accuracy"). All spoken like, well, Boeing or LockMart spokesmen. Sell it, boys!

So how about it, Flanker 2 developers? Are you paying attention, DID? This would be one fun mount to tear up the digital skies in. It ain't real yet, but so what? Neither was the EF2000 when DiD began designing that simulator, and their F22 was also based on some speculation. Take the fact that the Article 1.42 MFI is the world's premiere taxiway superiority fighter and extrapolate…