How a plane can perform a Pugchev Cobra without stalling ?

While performing Cobra, angle of attack is more than 90 degrees.. How a plane can manage to restore its lift and speed?|||Hi Prash! This can be answered with one word....Thrust. Massive amounts of it too..especially when your talking about the Russians. ;) I've seen them do this in beat up SU-27's with my own eyes and it's astounding.(and loud).





Another factor that can affect this maneuver is "Thrust Vectoring" like that on the F-22 Raptor.|||It is the Aerodynamics and position of the engines of the plane itself that help prevent the plane from stalling while preforming the Pugchev Cobra. Both the Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker and Mikoyan Mig-29 Fulcrum are designed with Superior maneuverability as thus the ability of both planes to do what looks Aerodynamically impossible look easy. Also positioning of the engines on these fighters have a lot to do with the ability too. Having the engines slung under the fuselage allows for more air into the intakes when the plane is at 90 Degrees vertical and beyond preventing 99.5% chances of engine stall or flame out, rather than side mounted fuselage intakes as seen on the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle and F-18 Hornet which reduces the airflow to the engines when 90 Degrees Vertical. To see this go to this website http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft_… and look at the planes side by side or individually to see how the engine placement differs dramatically between the planes. Other factors include speed, angle of attack, pitch and stability of the plane during the Pugchev Cobra. Unknown to most people United States fighters can preform the Cobra but it is not done very often due a lot to the Aerodynamics of the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, McDonnell Douglas-Northrop F-18 Hornet and Lockheed F-22 Raptor, because the planes could lose lift, slide left or right or, at worst an engine flame out thus the non use of this maneuver by US pilots at Air Shows.

Also while this is fascinating to see it is not really a very practical maneuver in Air to Air Combat as it puts the plane on a predictable flight path and thus making it more vulnerable than not, unless going against a lesser quality pilot. Only the really experienced pilots would try this in combat.

http://www.aviationfans.com/node/12

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pugachev's_…



Thrust Vectoring is fairly new on Air Superiority Fighter planes though the Hawker-Siddeley AV-8B Harrier uses Thrust Vectoring since 1965 for Vertical to Forward flight, and yes it helps modern planes preform the Cobra. But the Thrust Vectoring has only been introduced during the 1990's on later versions of 4th Generation and 5th Generation Air Superiority Fighters and only a few at that. The Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker and even the Mikoyan Mig-29 Fulcrum were preforming the Cobra back in the late 1970's during flight testing well before Thrust Vectoring was introduced on these fighters, though the first public view of the Pugchev Cobra wasn't till 1989 at the Pairs Le Bourget Air Show. As of today yes Thrust Vectoring attributes to but not all of a planes ability to preform the Cobra.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrust_vect…



One other feature on the Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker, Mikoyan Mig-29 Fulcrum and Eurofighter Typhoon and 5 other Combat fighters, are Canards that also help these planes do maneuvers that look ah inspiring. These are little wings that are on both sides of the fuselage, either just forward of the cockpit or just aft of the cockpit that help in directing the wind flow and giving an extra control surface. These little wings have been used on experimental planes since the 1940's thru the 1960's and used on numerous production fighters planes since the 1970's and on the Tupolev Tu-144 Super Sonic Transport and other Civilian private planes. There are no known active United States fighters that use Canards on them that I know of at this time.Why I am not sure but i would assume the United States has tried and decided that these are not feasible or do not add to a planes maneuverability and thus the none use. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canard_(aer…|||Heu... If it not kind of related to the topic of supermaneuverability of Herbst maneuver. Does an aircraft need a TVC to go for Pugchev Cobra...?



Also factor to consider... if entering at too low a speed, the pilot might not be able to accomplish the manoeuvre; entering at too high a speed might result in the g-force sufficient for the airframe to be damaged, or for the pilot to lose consciousness.



Click here for video of SU-27 jets doing the "Pugachev's Cobra"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daOPK07ba…