Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi (Founder of Sukhoi Aircraft Series)

Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi (Павел Восіпавіч Сухі) (July 22, 1895 – September 15, 1975) was a Belarusian Soviet aircraft constructor and designer.

Sukhoi was born in Glubokoye near Vitebsk, a small village in Belarus. He went to school from 1905 to 1914 at the Gomel Gymnasium. In 1915 he went to the Imperial Moscow Technical School (today known as BMSTU). After World War I broke out, he was drafted by the army; in 1920 he was demobilized because of health related problems and he went back to the BMSTU, graduating in 1925.

In 1925 he wrote his thesis named Chasseur Single-engined aircraft of 300 cv under the direction of Andrei Tupolev. In March 1925 he started working as an engineer/designer with TsAGI (The Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute). During the following years, Sukhoi designed and constructed aircraft of world renown. Examples include the heavy bombers TB-1 and TB-3. In 1932 he was assigned head of engineering and design department in TsAGI and in 1938 he was promoted to head of the department of design.

In September 1939 Sukhoi founded an independent engineering and design department named Sukhoi Design Bureau (OKB Sukhoi). Located in Kharkov, Sukhoi was not satisfied with the geographical location of the OKB. The OKB was isolated from the scientific pole of Moscow and insisted that the OKB would relocate to the aerodome of Podmoskovye. The relocation was completed in the first half of 1940. In the winter of 1942 Sukhoi encountered another problem — since he had no production line of its own he had nothing to do. He had developed a new ground-attack plane, the Su-6, but Stalin decided that this plane should not be taken in production, in a favour of Ilyushin Il-2. The reasons for this were that, first: the production of the other planes would slow down and in time of war this was not good, and second, Stalin didn't seem to particularly like Sukhoi.

The aircraft-bombers developed under Sukhoi are the Su-17 and the Su-24. The last fighter Sukhoi designed was the T-10 (Su-27) but he did not live to see it fly. On December 25, 1975 the President of the Academy of Science of the Soviet Union posthumously decorated Sukhoi with the golden medal, in recognition of his deep scientific scholarship.


Sukhoi (Сухой) is a major Russian aircraft manufacturer famous for its fighters. Founded by Pavel Sukhoi in 1939 as the Sukhoi Design Bureau (OKB-51, design office prefix Su), it is currently known as Sukhoi Corporation. It comprises the JSC Sukhoi Design Bureau located in Moscow, the Novosibirsk Aviation Production Association (NAPO), the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association (KnAAPO) and Irkutsk Aviation. Sukhoi is headquartered in Moscow. Finmeccanica owns 25% + 1 share of Sukhoi's civil division.The Russian government merged Sukhoi with Mikoyan, Ilyushin, Irkut, Tupolev, and Yakovlev as a new company named United Aircraft Building Corporation. Specifically, Mikoyan and Sukhoi were placed within the same operating unit.

Currently Sukhoi's Su-24, Su-25, Su-27, Su-30, Su-34, and shipborne Su-33 aircraft are in service with the Russian Air Force and Navy. Sukhoi attack and fighter aircraft have been supplied to Armenia, India, China, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Georgia, East Germany, Syria, Algeria, North Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Iran, Angola, Ethiopia, Peru, Eritrea, and Indonesia. Venezuela signed contracts for the purchase of 30 Su-30 fighter jets in July 2006. A total of more than 2000 Sukhoi aircraft were supplied to foreign countries on export contracts. With its Su-26, Su-29 and Su-31 models Sukhoi is also one of the leading manufacturers of aerobatic aircraft.

On August 4, 2006, the US State Department imposed sanctions on Sukhoi for allegedly supplying Iran in violation of the United States Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000. Sukhoi was prohibited from doing business with the United States Federal Government.The sanctions were felt by those within Sukhoi to be in response to Sukhoi's dealings with Venezuela for fighter aircraft. In November of 2006, the US State Department reversed its sanctions against Sukhoi.

Russia launched on September 26, 2007, its first modern commercial regional airliner—the Superjet 100, a 78 to 98 seater, built by Sukhoi. It was unveiled at Komsomolsk-on-Amur.The maiden flight was made on May 19, 2008.


Production Aircraft

* Su-2 - light bomber aircraft
* Su-7 "Fitter" and "Moujik" - ground-attack aircraft
* Su-9 "Fishpot" and "Maiden" - interceptor fighter aircraft
* Su-11 "Fishpot-C" - interceptor fighter aircraft
* Su-15 "Flagon" - 1967, interceptor fighter aircraft
* Su-17/Su-20/Su-22 "Fitter" - ground-attack aircraft
* Su-24 "Fencer' - 1974, jet bomber, attack aircraft
* Su-25 'Frogfoot" - ground attack aircraft
* Su-26 - single seat aerobatic aircraft (civil)
* Su-27 "Flanker" - 1984 - air superiority fighter
* Su-28/Su-25UB - Trainer and Demonstrator
* Su-29 - double seat aerobatic aircraft (civil)
* Su-30 - 1996, multi-role strike fighter aircraft
o Su-30MKI "Flanker-H" - multi-role fighter aircraft
o Su-30MK-2 "Flanker-G" - multi-role fighter aircraft
o Su-30MKK "Flanker-G" - strike-fighter aircraft
* Su-31 - single seat aerobatic aircraft (civil)
* Su-33 "Flanker-D" - 1994, carrier-based multi-role fighter aircraft
* Su-34/Su-32 "Fullback" - 2006, "Platypus", Strike-fighter aircraft
* Su-27M/Su-35 "Flanker-E" - 1995, air superiority fighter aircraft
o Su-35BM - 4++ generation multirole fighter aircraft
* Su-25TM/Su-39 - ground attack aircraft, optimised for anti-tank use
* Su-80 - a twin-turboprop STOL transport aircraft
* Superjet 100 - regional jet
* MS-21 - narrow-body jet airliner



Experimental Aircraft

* Su-1 - high-altitude fighter
* Su-5 - jet-propeller fighter
* Su-6 - ground attack aircraft
* Su-8 - ground attack aircraft
* Su-9 - jet fighter
* Su-10 - jet bomber
* Su-12 - observation plane (1947)
* Su-15 - interceptor fighter
* Su-17 - fighter
* Sukhoi-Gulfstream S-21 - a supersonic business jet design.
* Sukhoi KR-860 - Doubledeck Superjumbo jet design[7].
* Su-37 ("Terminator"), an improved Su-35
* Su-38 light agricultural aircraft
* S-32/37 - multirole fighter (was marketed for a time under the designation Su-47)
* Su-47 - experimental aircraft
* P-1 - interceptor fighter
* T-3 - fighter
* T-4 - supersonic bomber, quite similar in concept to XB-70 Valkyrie, which was developed by Sukhoi during the 60's and 70's.
* T-60S - intermediate range bomber.
* Sukhoi PAK FA/T-50 - 5th generation fighter. Future basic aircraft of Russian Frontline Aviation. Maiden flight is planned for 2009.[8]
* Sukhoi/HAL FGFA - FGFA is a derivative project from the PAK FA being developed by the Sukhoi OKB and HAL for the Indian Air Force (FGFA is the official designation for the Indian version).