Su-33 unsuccessfull carrier approach - must see!

[flateric]

thanks to Muxel

[sferrin]

If he'd snagged a cable that couldn't have been nasty. 

[quellish]

Many, many years ago I had seen video of the Su-27K development aircraft landing on Kuznetsov and catching the wire. And essentially breaking in half.
Sadly I've never seen that video in the public domain.

[Sundog]

Here's a toast to an excellent T/W ratio and engines better than were available in the 50's. He must have been using a "Cutlass" approach.

[lancer21]

Yeah , that left me jawdropped aswell...theres another one with another Su-33 missing the cables and trying to get airborne, soon as it left the deck the thing was sitting perhaps at 70-80 alpha ,and way , WAY under a "normal" stalling speed , almost still, for like ages ! but it just nonchalantely accelerated away ...amazing bird this Sukhoi ...

[Machdiamond]

Jawdropping indeed. 

[Abraham Gubler]

Ahh try <60 degrees alpha and in a low weight configuration for landing trials.

The pilot came in way to high and should have been waved off a long way before crossing the deck. He must have thought he was going to land in front of the flight deck and get run over by the carrier so soiled his pants and pulled back too much on the stick.

But I guess trying to learn to land on carriers with no prior experience was better than being sent to the GULAG.

[Stargazer2006]

The question is: could this have been achieved with any other aircraft than a Sukhoi Su-27 derivative? I'm not sure...

[Sundog]

The question is: could this have been achieved with any other aircraft than a Sukhoi Su-27 derivative? I'm not sure...

Yes, any aircraft with a T/W ratio greater than unity at a light weight and good alpha capability. Meaning the F-18 Hornet/Super Hornet series and the Rafale M. Of course, the Rafale M lands near that alpha anyway.

[sferrin]

Always thought this one was interesting too.

[TomS]

Why would you want to?  This was an amazingly unsafe approach (in the USN, it would rate as a "cut" pass, unacceptable).  As noted, if the hook had caught a wire, he'd have had an in-flight engagement and a very bad crash.  Even if it hadn't, he could very easily have ended up bouncing the tail of the aircraft off the deck, which would be pretty bad in itself.  Either he should have been waved off much earlier or he should have kept the nose down and flown the plane into a proper bolter.  

[Abraham Gubler]

Always thought this one was interesting too.

You can't apply rudder on a TF30 F-14 while landing otherwise you might lose an engine. So he had enough altitude to roll and must have been worried about his line taking him into the bow deck if he bolted.

[Woody]

Last week YouTube was running a featured video of a night time Russian carrier crash, where what looks like an Su-33 comes in too low and, in pulling up to vertical, tail strikes the end of the deck before pancaking down and smashing it's landing gear. The video was taken from the deck camera and in grainy black and white but it's gone now. Did anybody else see it?

Cheers, Woody

[sferrin]

Many, many years ago I had seen video of the Su-27K development aircraft landing on Kuznetsov and catching the wire. And essentially breaking in half.
Sadly I've never seen that video in the public domain.

Funny, I'd heard about that years ago but the story I heard had it as a Mig-29.  (I'm assuming you're correct, since you've seen the video, it's just interesting how things change through the telling.)

[flateric]