knowan wrote:It burned a hell of a lot of energy doing that turn; notice that afterwards the plane dived for over 10 seconds before making any more turns.
Also note this was a clean Su-35 with a low fuel load.
Source for low fuel load? Even if it's only 50%, 50% of a Flankers internal fuel is more than many western fighters can carry in total. 50% is 12,700lbs, or damn close to an F-15's total internal fuel (13, 850). And that's one of the largest Western fighters there is...
I recall seeing at least one Flanker demo with a damn impressive external load. Same for the SH. And if the SH can do it, why not a Flanker with a much better thrust to weight ratio to begin with?
I would agree Russian fighter demo's are much more impressive to watch vs. Western ones, but only if you're the average person. The average person doesn't understand the effect a full AAM loadout would have on performance. They don't understand after pulling a high AOA maneuver off, not re-gaining energy leaves your a sitting duck, or that a plane that loses altitude after such is much less impressive than one gaining altitude.
Which makes the F-35 demo that much more impressive.