Main Command of the Russian Air Force approved the draft long-term aviation system Aviation (PAK DA), which in the future will replace the troops strategic bombers Tu-95MS and Tu-160. In the contest held the project won the Tupolev Design Bureau. Choice fell on military subsonic aircraft with extensive use of stealth technology.
The new strategic bomber bomber will be built on a flying wing and because of the nature of this design will not be able to overcome the sound barrier.
However, the designers promise that it will be virtually invisible to radar. With this project, also competed in the contest options supersonic versions of the PAK DA and one of the hypersonic. Earlier, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin insisted that the new bomber should be hypersonic.
According to a source in the aviation industry, combine to develop hypersonic speed and invisible to radar in one aircraft is impossible. The fact that the development of hypersonic speeds needed a perfect aerodynamic shape of the fuselage with smooth contours, and for radar stealth - angular shape that is incompatible with the flies at high speeds.
As expected, the Tupolev will finish the work on the tactical and technical characteristics of the PAK DA in early 2014, will present the calculation of the military budget of research on this project. Serial production of future aircraft to begin in 2020
