Mikoyan Project 1.44

The Mikoyan Project 1.44/1.42  was a technology demonstrator developed by the Mikoyan design bureau. It was the Soviet Union's answer to the U.S.'s Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF), incorporating many fifth-generation jet fighter aspects such as advanced avionics, stealth technology, supermaneuverability, and supercruise. The design’s development was a protracted one, characterized by repeated and lengthy postponements due to a chronic lack of funds; the MiG 1.44 made its maiden flight in February 2000, nine years behind schedule, and was cancelled later that year.

The MiG MFI was a delta wing, twin-tailed, fifth-generation air superiority/strike fighter design that incorporated advanced technology to theoretically give the aircraft excellent stealth and fighting attributes. It was of a tail-first (canards) layout which, when working in concert with the engines, gave the aircraft remarkable manoeuvrability. It had a tricycle landing gear system, with a single, dual-wheel landing gear in the front, and two single wheels in the rear.

The MFI was controlled by a fly-by-wire flight control system, without which the aircraft was almost impossible to fly because of the statically unstable nature of the MFI. Mikoyan made use of weight-saving materials in the construction of the aircraft, with aluminium-lithium alloys making up 35% of the empty weight, steel and titanium alloys (30%), composites (30%) and others (5%). The MiG MFI was unconventional in its layout, in an effort to improve in-flight efficiency and stealth characteristics. Efforts were made to minimise surface-area, possibly to reduce drag. The wings were of delta planform, with leading-edge sweep at 52°.

At the tips were dielectric fairings which housed electronic countermeasures/electronic support measures. The wings had full-span leading edge. The canards, meanwhile, had a leading-edge sweep of 58°, and had prominent dogtooth which improve airflow over the wings at high alpha (angles of attack). Russian aviation experts claim that the unorthodox design, use of radar-absorbent materials (RAM), and internally mounted weapons, gave an RCS comparable to that of the F-22
-compiled by XENOCIDE