The Sukhoi Design Bureau celebrates its 85th anniversary on Monday. In honour of the event, check out some of the renowned aviation designer’s most notable planes.
Pavel Sukhoi, an aircraft designer, became the chief designer of his own independent design firm on July 29, 1939, before World War II.
Born in 1895 in Glubokoye, Vitebsk, Belarus, Sukhoi quickly became one of the USSR’s brightest young aircraft designers in the 1920s and 1930s, working with Andrei Tupolev and Nikolai Polikarpov to design over half a dozen fighters, bombers, and experimental aircraft.
Over the past 85 years, the Sukhoi Design Bureau has produced over two dozen of the USSR and Russia’s most famous reconnaissance, ground attack, interceptor, air superiority, and multirole fighter aircraft. Sputnik chose seven outstanding examples.
Su-2
Pavel Sukhoi and Andrei Tupolev created the first Sukhoi aircraft, the Su-2, as a training, reconnaissance, and light bomber. The military received about 900 Su-2s between 1939 and 1942.
With six ShKAS machine guns and RS-82 series unguided rockets, these aircraft are capable of carrying 600 kg of bombs.
Ekaterina Zelenko, a Soviet hero, crashed her Su-2 into a Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter in September 1941, tearing off its wing with her propeller. She is the only female pilot to air-ram a plane.
Su-17

Sukhoi pioneered supersonic flight with the Su-7 and Su-9 series in the late 1950s, perfecting the technology with the Su-17 variable-sweep-wing fighter-bomber in 1970. Over 2,860 Su-17 versions were constructed, making it the design bureau’s most numerous jet.
Su-17s were delivered to over a dozen nations during the Cold War, including Syria, Libya, Yemen, Vietnam, Angola, Poland, and Peru. They had a top speed of 1,400 km/h, a 1,150 km combat range, and 12 powerful points for up to 4 tonnes of bombs.
Su-25

Sukhoi developed the Su-25 in the 1970s as a subsonic ground attack aircraft for close air support operations. It is a versatile and enduring aircraft. The retirement rate is low.
The single-seater aircraft has a top speed of 975 km/h, a combat range of 750 km, and 11 heavy points for 4.4 tonnes of armaments, including rockets, air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles, and several bombs (FAB, KAB, BetAB, and ZAB).
Many nations have marketed and used the aircraft in battle.
In January 1991, Iraqi Air Force pilots flew seven Su-25s to Iran to escape the US-led coalition during Operation Desert Storm.
Iran bought six more Su-25s from Russia in the mid-2000s, using two to block a 2012 US MQ-1 Predator drone that entered Iranian airspace. Baghdad received Iranian Su-25s in 2014 to fight ISIS.
Su-27

The Su-27, introduced in 1985, was a response to US fourth-generation jet fighter technology. It eventually led to the development of modern Russian, Indian, and Chinese warplanes such as the Su-30MKI, Su-35, and Shenyang J-11.
Twin-engine Supermaneuverable jets can perform every job Russia’s Aerospace Forces have given them, from air superiority to escorts to bombs.
According to retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, the Su-27’s chief designer, Mikhail Simonov, stopped the plane’s development mid-stream in 1977 and started over to create a completely new type of plane.
Su-34

The Soviet (and later Russian) military required a new generation of frontline supersonic strike aircraft, such as the Su-34, which could perform missions in operational and tactical depth at standoff ranges.
In April 1990, the mid-1980s-conceived Su-34 made its first flight, but the economic and political turmoil of the 1990s almost put an end to its development.
Although development was delayed, limited series manufacturing began in 2006, and the duck-nose fighter-bomber entered service in 2014.
Starting in 2015, six Su-34s were rotated to Syria to help Damascus fight foreign-sponsored jihadists and’moderate’ rebels.
In the Russia-NATO proxy war in Ukraine, the jets have flown tens of thousands of sorties with their Kh-36 and Kh-65 cruise missiles and super-heavy KAB and upgraded FAB guided and glide bombs, which smashed through Ukraine’s heavily fortified Donbass defences this spring.
Su-47

Sukhoi’s hypothetical forward-swept wing jet design, a carrier-based fighter with super-manoeuvrability, supersonic speed, all-angle fire, and radar-invisible capabilities, is the most unique aircraft on this list.
Design began in close collaboration with Moscow’s Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute, and the military authorised a full-scale technology demonstrator by 1988.
The aircraft was highly manoeuvrable at subsonic speeds, making it ideal for dogfights and missile avoidance. To alleviate strain due to the high predicted g-force of the plane’s pilots, the cockpit was built with a 30 degree backrest angle instead of 13–15 degrees.
The jet’s power comes from a derivative of the DF-30 engine used in the Mikoyan MiG-31 interceptor/strike aircraft, the Ilyushin Il-76 strategic airlifter, and Tupolev’s Tu-134 and Tu-154 passenger liners. The jet could reach 2,500 km/h and had a 2,000-km subsonic battle radius (800 km supersonic).
September 1997 saw the first Su-47 fly. Incredible footage of the aircraft in flight at airshows in 1999 and 2001 is accessible online.
The Su-47 project was closed in the 2000s, but chief designer Mikhail Pogosyan and his team created and tested several technologies and engineering decisions that would be used in the Su-57.
Russia’s first multi-role fifth-generation stealth jet fighter, the Su-57, was developed in the 2000s and 2010s and entered service in limited numbers in 2020.
Russian heavy jets, equipped with advanced avionics, radar, targeting, and electronic countermeasures, can reach speeds of approximately 2500 km/h and have a range of 4,500 km with 2 outboard fuel tanks or 3,500 km without.
Su-57
Su-57s can carry all of Russia’s new air-to-air, air-to-surface, anti-ship, anti-radiation, and heavy guided glide bombs with 12 powerful points (6 internal, 6 external). About two dozen series Su-57s have been built, with 76 ordered.