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First stage of PAK FA test flights to be over in late 2017

T-50 is a perfect aircraft which has already demonstrated its capabilities at the MAKS international airshow, commander-in-chief of the Russian aerospace forces said

PAK FA fighter jet Marina Lystseva/TASS

PAK FA fighter jet

© Marina Lystseva/TASS

ZHUKOVSKY /Moscow region/, July 18. /TASS/. The first stage of test flights of the PAK FA (Perspective Airborne Complex of Front-line Aviation), or T-50, is planned to be over in December 2017, commander-in-chief of the Russian aerospace forces, Viktor Bondarev, said on Tuesday.

"We do have something to be proud of. The first stage of PAK FA trials will be over in December and eventually we will receive such planes," he said, adding that T-50 is a perfect aircraft which has already demonstrated its capabilities at the MAKS international airshow.

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"Words cannot describe what T-50 was doing today. You won’t see anything like that anywhere else. There are some analogues but they only fly lengthwise but ours demonstrate everything in midair. I think every country wants to have such planes and we do have them," he said.

The T-50 (PAK FA) is Russia’s fifth-generation fighter, which took to the skies for the first time in 2010. It was earlier reported that mass production of T-50 fighters would begin in 2017 and it would enter service with the Russian aerospace force.

According to updated information, the first stage of the aircraft’s trials is expected to be completed in 2018.

It was reported earlier that the T-50 with the advanced (main) engine would perform its debut flight in the fourth quarter of 2017. Currently, the so-called first stage engine 117S is mounted on the Russian fighter. The new engine has not yet received any name and is conventionally designated as the second stage engine.

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