This jet almost destroyed the F-22 - MiG MFI / 1.44

brought to you by Squarespace meet what was to be the Russian answer to the F-22 Raptor being able to carry more missiles and even shoot backwards this jet was to be the pride of the new Russian Air Force but instead it turned out to be the downfall of the famous Mig Bureau today we'll be exploring the last big project of the Soviet aviation industry the curse of 90s Russia and house Ahoy ended up taking over the Russian 5th jet program this is the Mig mfi [Music] our story actually begins in the early 80s Russia was becoming aware that the capitalist Americans were building a successor to the F-15 to not be caught with their pants down they commissioned their own equal project to replace the sahoi su-27 and was looking to recreate the success of the famous mig-25 fox bat and a successor the mig-31 the main requirements tasked to the various Aerospace bureaus all over the USSR were as follows super maneuverability multi-rollability supersonic Cruise Speed without the use of afterburners and a low radar cross-section the development of the new Fighters started slowly in two main competitors came out of the pack Mig in his forever rival sohoi when the Soviets found out that the ATF program had selected the Lockheed yf-22 as the next year US Air dominance Fighter the government set the highest priority for the mfi and lfi programs to counter this new threat and the mfi was to be the new heavy multi-role fighter and the lfi stood for light one Mig had the big brain move to design both aircraft to utilize as many components as possible and keep costs down winning the contract but this win would also seal its tragic fate and I bet you're thinking watching this video I wish one day people would be talking about my own projects like this making videos that get the views well there's some Uncle Nick advice from foundon explained here for you today they won't hear about your business unless you have a website and Squarespace is the best website builder out there yes that's right Squarespace is the quickest and easiest way to get your name onto the web thanks to its incredibly simple and very good looking templates or you could build your own using their software with no coding required their sites already optimized for mobile phones they have fantastic e-commerce Tech built right in so you can make sales right away and you can run powerful email campaigns within the platform you don't need to get any other software so to launch your own site and help the channel so I can keep making animations just like this go to www.squarespace.com found and get 10 off your first site and domain every click helps and I thank you for helping the channel the new aircraft series mfi got the designation I-90 meaning fighter nighty or Fighter for the 90s requirements stay pretty much the same and after testing various models in the wind tunnels of tsagi the final design was chosen the mfi had a pretty standard Delta win configuration but with some interesting details that make it a pretty unique plane just like the Rafael or the Euro Fighter the front of the aircraft had canards because delta wing designs are known to be less stable without them due to the lack of horizontal stabilizers large variable intake ramps similar to the eurofighter would allow a steady flow of air during even the high angle Maneuvers and s-shaped ducts would hide the compressor blades ticking both of the first two requirements engines powering the aircraft were Saturn al-41fs and they should not be confused with the al-41s used on the su-35 and su-57 because these engines were completely different the only reason that they weren't used on the su-57 is that they were simply too large mfi's engines also had thrust of vectoring nozzles along with ceramic plates on the inside of the nozzles to lower the IR signature even though the flying prototype didn't have a weapons Bay the 1.42 prototype one made for static and ground testing had it and could fit an impressive 12 missiles this would allow for a large amount of Weaponry in a full stealth configuration if they only use the internal Bay but when they decided to use the external hardpoints as well they would be able to sport large air-to-ground missiles like the ha 29 31 and 55 and others making it a truly multi-role fighter ticking the last requirement another novelty with this aircraft was the ability to launch missiles towards the back shooting down any the enemy planes during a dogfight if the situation was Dire for the pilot this ability was being developed namely for the r60 and r73 missiles large canards in the front had also a dog tooth or a small extension which would help install resistance and with maneuverability in conclusion all the design choices were made in compliance with a requirements set and promised a very serious competitor to the Raptor in the future but alas in our story very soon everything went wrong to say that the 90s changed everything would be an understatement with the dissolution of the USSR many projects came to a full or a partial stop due to lack of funding but with this program it was a different story entirely the mfi and lfi programs along with the t10v which would end up as the su-34 were top priority programs and would still receive funding from the new government by 1994 the semi-completed Prototype was transferred to jokowsky airport to perform ground testing and high-speed ground tests alas a lack of progress in their government breathing down their necks the program would come to a full stop there was simply not enough money the engineers didn't even have enough to buy wiring to complete the prototype in an effort to get back on track Mig decided to scrap their lfi development plans to try and secure funding for the mfi but this wasn't enough the bureau even begged the military and government officials to let them show the aircraft to the world with a hope that with its performance at an international Air Show possible foreign investors like India or Arab countries would jump in to fix the funding shortfall but they were refused time and time again after waiting three years with no money and no support the government finally canceled the production of the fighter in 1997 but surprisingly this was not the end of the program you see it would actually be their rival sahoi who would come to the rescue in a roundabout way they had their own jet fighter canceled many years ago but decided to stick it to the new government and build it anyway sohoi would surprise everybody with their su-47 reveal in 1997 a jet that they finance themselves and built it despite the government shutdown so now Mig was animate to continue at all costs no matter the expense and not let this project fail or be a loser to sahoy after finally admitting that the project existed in 1998 and many changes in the actual management of the Mig Bureau the development continued well sort of by the year 2000 there's Dahlia 144 or better known as the mig-144 finally took to the skies with the hero of Russia tasp Island Vladimir gorbonov behind the controls in his words the aircraft performed very well in their second longer flight soon followed so there was still hope for this program uh except that there wasn't for you see the whole thing was too late [Music] there are a couple of reasons behind the complete failure of the mfi program and the mig-144 as the aircraft the first was very simple their first flight occurred 10 years after its counterpart by the time Raptors were in operational service the Mig was just testing basic flight performance they were looking at another 10 or so years to put this aircraft into operational service and by then it'd be completely obsolete the second reason was the obvious one money but not just the lack of funding but also the unit cost Meg projected that the unit cost for this jet would be around 70 million US dollars compared to around 71 million for the F-22 at the time this was a completely unacceptable embarrassment for the fragile Russian economy it led to an easy choice to cancel the project after all nobody can buy it if they can't afford it their third and final fact was that the Mig Bureau was going through a very rough phase many corruption scandals slow International sales and not enough work from the Russian Air Force and even the legendary test pilot left the company and he was to be the lead pilot for the program it seemed like Mig sacrificed everything to build this 144 and it was an empty shell by the end of it in the end a new program was opened called the pakfa and their sahoy was chosen without any competition as a bureau to work on the project because of its Financial stability great sales performance and successful development of the flanker family everything the Mig Bureau wasn't also the su-47 was developed completely on their own budget and without government funds and was far more successful than the ill-fated mig-144 this was also the moment which marked the start of the endeavorable end for the legendary McQueen and gullyroovich Bureau which merged with a few other Russian bureaus into the UAC or United aircraft Corporation in 2006. new programs like the mig-41 which you can check out here on the channel leave some light at the end of the tunnel for the company but Joseph was seen recently the final end to the lmfs project and the birth of yet another sahoy the su-75 Checkmate this is doubtful for a long time the only flying prototype of the mig-144 was rotting on the tarmac of the jakovsky airport but it was refurbished and displayed at the max air show in 2015 with a hope for a future in the museum because it is undoubtedly a big part of the rich Soviet and Russian aviation history hope you enjoyed this video and please check out my channel for many other Russian projects from the 90s linked to this one like the su-47 or the upcoming video about a naval version of this jet the mysterious s22 see you soon

Channel: Found And Explained

Views: 779,922

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Id: nP4kJUbsRcg

Length: 11min 55sec (715 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 26 2022