You also can look at it an angle, and it will come out too.

Oh Flanker...you're just spreading American propaganda. Come on, dude, you KNOW somebody had to say it. J/K

Yes...looks like a YF-23, minus thrust vectoring, minus stealthy engine output (minus sexiness), plus extra parachute tube.

I believe that the Era of Flight is over in Russia and has been over for....well since the cold war ended really. If Russian engineers were to amazingly pull a nice and competent stealth aircraft out of somewhere (thin air?), then they would have a hell of a time coming up with all the extras they'd need to build into the plane after the fact.

Speaking of stealth and working out bugs, a bunch of Air Test and Eval. squadrons were working for years testing the F-22 out, finding bugs, making new software etc...I said that to state this point: At this point in time, Russia would not have enough competent personel to develop a "modern" stealth plane, its just not realistic, but even if they had an idea about doing this - there would be no need to develop air superiority or even compete, right now Russia has way more internal problems than external.

Ummm...no offense, GotRails, but funding is the only obstacle. If you think the Russians don't have competent personnel to pull it off, if they had the funding to give those guys something to work with, you would be SOOOO wrong. Higher education is a much higher priority in Russia than it is here, so they've got some of the best minds in their ranks. Don't forget the name of the man who invented the concept of radar low-observability...Pyotr Ufemtsev. Care to guess his nationality from the name?

If you're just starting out in the AF, try to remember not to underestimate your opposition.

To be honest, im Russian by Nationality (US Citizen though). Higher Education *was* priority a little while back, but at this point in time, in Russia, even if you have a higher education from an Institue/College/University, no-one will even bother to accept you for a job without connections. So the harsh reality is that very few people actually can pay for higher education, let alone get a job afterword to use that knowledge.

I agree with you, there are many brilliant minds, and there were many brilliant minds in Russia. But what good is a brilliant mind when it is not put to use?

What i meant by "not enough competent personel", is basically this: Most people don't have high morale in the Russian Military, not only that, but most of the people who work on the planes are not exactly too educated - The people that conduct them are, but i assure you, there are few. Or well atleast of what i hear from my Father, who served in the Russian Military - He was in charge of maintenence of Turbofans.

I agree though, if there was as much money in the Russian AF as in the USAF, they would be able to compete. But hey, where theres money, theres smart people.

Well then, welcome to the United States Air Force! Are you an officer or enlisted? Higher education is still a major priority in Russia, and now its becoming a competitive thing. Yes, connections are important, but so is the question of what kind of degree your competitor holds. Can you get a good job with a Bachelor's degree in Russia? Maybe, but Master's seems to be the minimum. I met a whole lot of PhDs in astrophysics, aeronautics, and metallurgy when I was there on business a few years ago. These guys and gals had so much knowledge, but they were still fun to hang out with after work.

Thanks . Im enlisted, infact im fresh out of High School (processed like 2 days after graduation). Maybe one day i'll be wearing one of those shiny ACC patches and a G-suit.

Well competition and connections are stressed in any country...infact its stressed in the U.S. alot, but the thing is we have the jobs to not make it...cut-throat competition. Russia seems to be alot different, its competition but a big part of that is connections in itself, its almost unfair really...because a person who knows someone up high can get and keep a good job even if they are as dumb as a rock. You can see that alot more often than not in Russia. Hopefully that can change sometime in the next decade or two, government needs to put in some structure as far as crookedness and all that corruption stuff, but ohh well =P enough about that.

Lets talk planes - From what i know, Russia will need ALOT of practice just creating a Stealth plane as far as....well testing and all that good stuff. Considering they never made a Stealth plane, i'd like to see one though, definately, but i bet it will be classified for a good 20 years.