The Soviet Su-27 Maneuver That Shocked Western Pilots

Описание: 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.