MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti military commentator Viktor Litovkin) - U.S. fighters F-16 A\B Fighting Falcon and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet landed at Zhukovsky airfield near Moscow over the weekend.
Together with a USAF strategic bomber B-1B expected later, they will take part in the 7th Moscow International Air Show MAKS-2005, opening on August 16.
At the air show, which will last until August 21, more than 600 firms from forty countries will demonstrate their products, Federal Agency for Industry head Boris Alyoshin told RIA Novosti. This, of course, is less than at the 46th International Air Show at Le Bourget in France a month and a half ago, which was attended by 1,900 companies from 44 countries of the world displaying 240 civilian and military planes, helicopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).
But, as distinct from Paris, the Moscow air show will have a more varied program of demonstration and exhibition flights by both Russian and foreign combat, passenger and sports planes. American pilots, the French aerobatic team Patrouille de France, and the Italian Frecce Tricolori plan to show their skills at Zhukovsky. The Russian Knights and the Swifts will fly the Su-27 (NATO classification: Flanker) and MiG-29 (NATO classification: Fulcrum) combat fighters, and the Rus group, the training L-39 aircraft. Sukhoi and MiG test pilots Pavel Vlasov and Sergei Bogdan and their colleagues from the Gromov Flight Institute (known from its Russian acronym LII) will perform aerobatic stunts flying the modernized multi-role vectored-thrust Su-27SKMs and MiG-29OVTs.
Only in the skies over the Moscow region can one see twenty-ton warplanes somersaulting, stalling in the air, diving nose first or nose last, or turning over the right or left wing. No other fighters in the world are capable of doing that. And no other air and space show has such a demonstration program of aerobatics as MAKS at Zhukovsky.
Yet MAKS-2005 is still way behind Le Bourget, although Russian officials like comparing the two. They differ not only in the attendance figures. Le Bourget’s drawing card is businessmen and specialists arriving from all over the world to see the trends in world aviation and space industry, exchange opinions, arrange new meetings, strike some deals and also to sell their wares. Zhukovsky is a more modest affair. As a rule, no contracts are concluded here. And while this year 30 billion dollars worth of aircraft and services were sold in the French capital, Moscow’s figure is unlikely to be higher than several hundred million.
However, the Zhukovsky air show is valued not for its profits, but for seeing trends in Russian aircraft building, the latest prototypes developed in Russia, one of the leading aircraft building powers, and the new and modernized samples of weaponry to be supplied to the Russian army and navy. MAKS has always lived beyond its declared name, going farther afield than just aviation and space.
Only here one can see the full product line of Su fighters, assault planes and bombers, including the experimental Berkut Su-47 (NATO classification: Firkin) with swept-forward wings. It is called a fifth-generation fighter (this year it will be on view for the first time and can be examined closely). At Zhukovsky, guests will also see the aerobatic Su-31, which has won many gold medals in world competitions. There will also be the MiG family, aircraft manufactured by Tupolev, Yakovlev, Beriev, Irkut and other Russian brands. On display will be a life-size model of the new Russian space shuttle Kliper, and a range of Almaz-Antei’s surface-to-air missile systems S-300PMU2 Favorit, S-300V and Antei-2500, the modernized Tor-M1, Osa-10M, and Kvadrat, and also surface-to-air missile systems of other firms: the Pechora (a modernized version of the S-125), Buk, Shilka, shoulder-fired Strela-10 and Igla-M, and many others.
MAKS-2005 is known not only for its demonstration flights. Unfortunately, it will lack the drawing card of the Paris show — the A380 Airbus, which does not yet make international flights. Nor will it feature another advanced airliner Boeing-787, which has not yet taken to the air. But there will be Russia’s Il-76MD (NATO classification: Candid), Tu-204, Tu-214, Tu-334, Il-96, Russian-Ukrainian An-124 (NATO classification Condor), An-140 (NATO classification: Clod) and An-148 (NATO classification: Clod) and, certainly, the medium-haul jet passenger liner of the Sukhoi civilian arm — the Russian Regional Jet (RRJ). True, not in full size. But the pilot cockpit and part of the passenger compartment will be complete.
The Russian Regional Jet is a project, which Sukhoi develops together with big American and European aviation corporations, including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr, Honeywell, and others. This list is not fortuitous. Sukhoi administrators specially looked for business partners that could help them tap the world market. And they already have support from such air companies as Russia’s Aeroflot and Siberia Airlines, Air France, Delta, Lufthansa, Alitalia, Air Mexico and others.
The Sukhoi example is not the only one of its kind. A united aircraft corporation being set up in Russia is oriented towards international division of labor and close cooperation with leading aircraft manufacturers across the world, and not only in developing and promoting new combat and civilian planes, but also in devising aviation and space systems, components, on-board electronic systems, aerial antennas, and computing and service systems for aircraft and passengers. All this will be on display at MAKS-2005.
And although it will not outshine the No.1 air show at Le Bourget, its organizers claim it will come within breathing distance. The future, however, is unpredictable. Perhaps Paris will have to catch up with Moscow some day.
