After the announcement of the Su-34 "Fullback" in 48th scale, Kittyhawk are going to bring it's stable mate in the same scale – Let's look at the weapons load out and pictures of the Su-35 "Flanker-E" in our preview...
Sukhoi Su-35 "Flanker-E"
From Kittyhawk Models
Product No: KH80142
1/48th scale
Kitty Hawk is to release a new tool 48th scale version of the Sukhoi "Flanker-E" to eager modellers. In view of what was seen as a disappointment in a rival's kit of the same airframe we would like to see how this one turns out.
We have some CAD drawings f the aircraft, also showing a massive weapons loadout. Let's have a look first about a little of the Flanker-E and it's capabilities
The real thing
The Sukhoi Su-35S Flanker-E is the most potent fighter currently in operation with the Russian Air Force.
The powerful twin-engine fighter, which is an advanced derivative of the original Soviet-era Su-27, is high flying, fast and carries an enormous payload. That, combined with its advanced suite of avionics, makes the Su-35 an extremely dangerous foe to any U.S. fighter, with the exception of the stealthy Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor. That is one of the reasons the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force is keen to acquire the new jet.
As an air-superiority fighter, its major advantages are its combination of high altitude capability and blistering speed—which allow the fighter to impart the maximum possible amount of launch energy to its arsenal of long-range air-to-air missiles.
The Su-35 would be launching its weapons from high supersonic speeds around Mach 1.5 at altitudes greater than 45,000 ft; the F-35 would primarily be operating in the 30,000-ft range at speeds around Mach 0.9.
The Su-35 builds on the already potent Flanker airframe, which in many respects already exceeded the aerodynamic performance of the Boeing F-15 Eagle. The Su-35 adds a lighter airframe, three-dimensional thrust vectoring, advanced avionics and a powerful jamming capability.
The addition of the electronic attack (EA) capability complicates matters for Western fighters because the Su-35’s advanced digital radio frequency memory jammers can seriously degrade the performance of friendly radars. It also effectively blinds the onboard radars found onboard American-made air-to-air missiles like the AIM-120 AMRAAM. The Su-35 also carries a potent infrared search and track capability that could pose a problem for Western fighters.
China recently became the first export customer, closely followed by Indonesia.
The kit
This new boxing from Kittyhawk seems to be just in time and hopefully, the kit everyone was looking for. You can see a little of the kit here in these CAD images sent to us, the nose and rear warning cones can be taken off for display of the internals inside them.
Of course, all of the usual features will be included, a detailed cockpit, wheel bays able to be displayed open and the gear down etc – but take a look at all the extra weaponry in this kit...
One of the Su-35’s major advantages over similar aircraft in it's class is that it carries an enormous payload of air-to-air & air-to-ground missiles, bombs, rockets and pods of several kinds. Some of those are displayed here in these images, the load out supplied in this kit is enormous and it leaves the modeller with so many choices.
Until we know more we will keep looking for info on this new kit – check out Kittyhawk's website for more on all of their models.
