Mach 5 Russian Mig 41 To Fly This Year

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 Here is some tech news for tech geeks. I have previously mentioned the new Russian MIG 41 supersonic fighter. That it was supposed to fly by 2025 (first flight). Here is an update. The Russians have announced that the MIG 41 will fly by this year end. Two years ahead of schedule. It will be a hypersonic fighter capable of flying at Mach 5 or five times the speed of sound.
Mach 5 is about 3836 mph or 6173 km/hr.  For perspective at Mach 5 the flight time from Singapore to Melbourne (3770 miles or 6,066 km) will be under one hour. Normal flight time is 7.5 hours.

It is possible that the MIG41 will be capable of supercruise which means being able to maintain hypersonic speed without using afterburners. Afterburners not only triple or quadruple fuel consumption but they also damage the engine.
The MIG41 will be a game changer. At Mach 5 and flying at near space not only will this plane outrun other jet fighters but it can also outrun many air to air and surface to air missiles.  It will be difficult to shoot down this plane.



In comparison the American F22 Stealth fighter (no more in service) had a top speed of just below Mach 2 (1500 mph). The F22 had a very high cost together with huge breakdown and maintenance issues. As the video says at higher machs, the stealth coatings (rubberised radar absorbent coatings) suffered damage thus limiting higher speeds. 
The latest American stealth fighter the F35 is also suffering similar problems. The US$100 million F35 has an even slower top speed not exceeding Mach 1.6 or 1,200 mph.   Even old Russian supersonic bombers like the 42 year old TU160 fly at over Mach 2.0 and can easily outrun the F35.
In an embarrassing accident recently (two weeks back) an American F35 crashed in South Carolina due to "bad weather".  After the pilot ejected safely the plane still flew by itself for another 65 miles before crashing into farmland.  What was more embarrassing was that they could not find the crashed aircraft for more than 24 hours. The crashed plane was finally spotted by local sheriff's helicopters after locals appeared on tv saying that they heard and saw a jet fighter flying low and almost upside down. But folks the Chinese are already doing advanced work on their own hypersonic plane - a Mach 6 monster that will be armed with laser cannons. We will not have to wait too long to see that either.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.By Syed Akbar Ali 

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