Checkmate at MAKS.
Via Andreas Rupprecht
Photos have appeared online depicting Russia’s new stealth fighter.
The single-engine warplane, which manufacturer Sukhoi calls “Checkmate,” reportedly will make its debut at the MAKS air show at Ramenskoye airfield in Moscow Oblast next week.
In the earliest images, Checkmate is covered in a tarp. In photos that appeared on Sunday, the tarp is gone. What’s underneath could be a nonflying mock-up. Or it might be a flyable prototype.
In any event, we now can try to assess Checkmate’s design.
At first glance, Checkmate has obvious low-observable qualities, including a chiseled nose and fuselage, V-shape tail control surfaces and internal weapons bays—all of which help to scatter, rather than directly reflect, radar energy.
Perhaps most notably, the chin inlet features a noticeable underbite.
That underbite is telling. A chin inlet—like the American F-16, European Typhoon and Chinese J-10…
