She's a gorgeous plane. yeah, some people are gonna knock her because they refuse to believe that russia has any intellegent people with an iq over fourty, but te truth is, our f-22s have been getting shot down in play battles for some time now by su-27s. Then the su-35s hit but were so expensive, russia couldnt afford them. This plane looks good. it's a more simple design, yet very sdleek and self contained. not at all clunky. I doubt she'll have the maneuverability of say the su-33 or su-35, but i've been incorrect before.. it'll be fun watching this one develop.
Show me one instance where an F-22 was shot down by an Su-27? I've yet to see any evidence of this. I think you've definitely confused the F-15 for the F-22, because F-22's haven't had any dogfights with Su-27's, other than at Groom Lake at best. In fact, the only shoot downs of the F-22 I've come across are when the F-22 pilots decide to hotdog it and get into a knife fight, giving up all of their advantages, then getting shot down by the wingman they didn't see. i.e.- Bad tactics are the only time I've seen an F-22 get shot down in any war game and those have all been by Hornets or Growlers. Even the Growler pilot who made the kill said it just turned out to be a lucky shot.
As for the T-50, it will be at least as maneuverable as any of the Flanker family, as it is a truly unstable design and uses it's 3D TV to great advantage. However, it isn't as stealthy as the F-22 and it probably isn't as stealthy as the F-35, though it's probably close. That's because they, the Russians, don't want the T-50 to be a hanger queen due to the level of stealth treatment you need to attain the level of stealth the U.S. has set for it's designs.
Also, much of the design treatments, such as the 3D fixed shock inlets are like what the U.S. uses, because they make sense. Much of that technology was developed in the U.S. and yes, they referenced it. I hope people here don't think the Russians are so stupid that they would spend billions of dollars developing a knowledge base they could get from us at much less cost. It's a known fact that Russia and China already have all of the info on the F-22 and F-35 designs and their technologies. It's actually being able to manufacture them that's the difficult part.
So yeah, there are similarities between the T-50 and the F-22. But that's also because physics and technology determine what the plane will look like, to a certain extent. And yes, the Russians did reference U.S. designs and technology in developing it, because they would have been fools not to. The mission defines the design, not the other way around. In fact, the T-50 is a logical progression of the Flanker design, adapted for the new mission requirements.
Also, in a bit of a geek fit, I have to say I can't help thinking of the sensor behind the cockpit as a miniature R2D2.
As of this moment, I think it's the best looking fighter flying. If you would like more info and pictures, you can reference the following links;
Secret Projects T-50 thread
Ares Blog postings and analysis of the T-50
