Pitanje za poznavaoce borbenih aviona.
Vidim da je ruski specijalitet da izvode manevar "kobru", i to stvarno izgleda nestvarno i nadrealeno. Ima li neke koristi od tog manerva u borbi (pogledao sam (jedva) onu holivudsku bljuvotinu od filma Top Gun 2020), gde ruski avion pravi manevar "kobre" i tako se nađe iza leđa na repu čuvenom nepodedivom Maveriku gde ga ima na nišanu.
Ilustracije radi, to što sam opisao je na oko 00:50 sekundi video priloga.
I pored svega mi nije jasno od kakve koristi su taj i slični za oko atraktivni manervi kada se moderni borbeni avioni gađaju raketama sa 120 i više km udaljenosti.
Manervi aviona naglog poniranje te naglog penjanje imaju svoju svrhu, kada se bombarduju ciljevi na zemlji.
Opet se orgađujem, jer ne znam, a onda je najbolje pitati.
Manervi naglog poniranje te naglog penjanje imaju svoju svrhu, kada se bombarduju ciljevi na zemlji.
Iz knjige:"MIGS IN THE MIDDLE EAST VOLUME 2: SOVIET-DESIGNED COMBAT AIRCRAFT IN EGYPT AND SYRIA, 1963-1967"
Stoji da je u biti prvi manevar Kobra ili manevar nulte brzine izveo siriski pilot Mohammed Mansour na MiG-21 skoro dvadeset godina prije nego su je izvodili ruski probni piloti na Su-27 kao "Pugatchov Cobra".
MOHAMMED MANSOUR: THE SYRIAN WHO INVENTED THE COBRA –
OR ZERO-SPEED MANOEUVRE
Since the early 1990s, videos and stories of the ‘Pugatchov
Cobra’ – a ‘dramatic and demanding manoeuvre’ – have made
circles in the media. The manoeuvre is usually flown by Russian
pilots in different variants of the Sukhoi Su-27 family of fighter
jets. Supposedly developed by Russians, it is an impressive
trick, demonstrating the aircraft’s fantastic manoeuvrability. In
professional circles, discussions about its potential use in air
combat are at least as endless: theoretically, an aircraft flying
the ‘Pugatchov Cobra’ could suddenly decrease speed and thus
force any pursuer to overshot, i.e. fly in front. However, nobody
knows the background of this manoeuvre, nor who really flew it
for the first time, how, when, where, or why.25
As described earlier, when the SyAAF was re-established
upon the dissolution of the UAR in late 1961, and early during
its acquisition of MiG-21s, its pilots were over-reliant on the
advice of about 30 Soviet advisors assigned to help them work
up their new mounts. As usual for the time, the Soviets taught
the Syrians to fly high and fast. Experience from clashes with the
Israelis in 1963-1965, gradually taught the SyAAF MiG-21 pilots
that the Soviet advice was unrealistic, much too conservative,
and that it lacked an effective defensive manoeuvre: one that
would spoil cannon attacks by Israeli Mirages. One should keep
in mind that as of the mid-1960s, there were next to no effective
air-to-air missiles, and guns were still the primary armament of
all fighters. Thus, air combats were still fought by fighters that
attempted to reach a favourable position behind each other, and
rarely beyond ranges of 150-200 metres. Whoever was in front
was at disadvantage and it was imperative to force the enemy to
miss or overshoot.
Born in Damascus in 1942, as the second son of a wealthy
merchant named Khalil Mansour, Mohammad originally
studied the law in Damascus before joining the Air Force
Academy in 1961. After graduating in 1963, he was sent to the
USSR for conversion training on MiG-21F-13s. Although a Sunni Muslim serving in armed forces that were already
dominated by Alawites, he fared well during all the turbulence
in Syria in the following years: apparently, Mohammad had no
interest in politics, but only in flying. By 1966, he established
himself as the top tactician in Air Brigade 7. After developing
the tactics of ‘secret approach’ at low-altitude, he concentrated
on developing manoeuvres to avoid gun-attacks by Israeli
interceptors. Initially working with the help of such Soviet
manuals as the earlier-mentioned Manual on the Techniques of
Piloting and Military Use of the MiG-21, he ran a series of test-
flights starting with rapid descending turns, followed by sudden
activation of the afterburner and climb. In the course of one
such sortie, Mohammed inadvertently pitched the nose of his
MiG-21 too hard. With the jet’s big delta acting as an air brake,
all the forward movement promptly stopped: because the pilot
engaged the afterburner, the MiG ended ‘standing on its tail’,
nose pointing almost vertically into the sky, on the verge of
flipping out of control. Although Mohammed regained control
in time to prevent a crash, it was a close-call – though one
that generated the idea: keeping in mind the notoriously slow
reaction to throttle movement of the R11 engine, he decided to
next time try engaging the afterburner before pitching the nose
of the jet upwards. This was the moment in which what later
became known as the ‘Zero-Speed Manoeuvre’, and, much
later, the ‘Pugachov Cobra’, was born.
As far as is known, Mohammed went on to become the
most successful Arab fighter-pilot of the June 1967 Arab-Israeli
War. He scored at least two, probably three kills, without ever
being fired upon by the Israelis. In turn, he never used the
Zero-Speed Manoeuvre in combat. Nevertheless, the story of
his manoeuvre began unfolding: in 1968, when the runway of
Muwaffaq as-Salti AB in Jordan was undergoing reconstruction,
pilots of the Lockheed F-104A Starfighters of No. 9 Squadron,
Royal Jordanian Air Force, were temporarily deployed to Syria.
Together with them was a pair of Pakistani pilots serving their
exchange tours in the Middle East. The latter two, including
together with its pilot, Sa’eed Irays Frayq. Ignoring the loss, the
government in Damascus released bombastic claims via its media,
claiming a major victory, and an effective operation over Israel.
Assad went as far as to boast that for the first time since 1948, Syria
had taken the offensive rather than the defensive. That said, Jadid,
Assad, and Suweidani did take care to order their ground troops
to cease fire, and the stranded Israeli vessel was eventually towed
away on 26 August 1966.22
Monitoring the developments in Syria with increasing concern,
in September 1966 Nasser sent Major-General Sa’adi Najib Ali
and Brigadier-General el-Hinnawy of the UAC to Damascus, with
a renewed offer of help. However, neither Jadid nor Assad would
even meet the Egyptian. Instead, Lieutenant-General Suweidani
explained to him that his country was lacking the facilities necessary
for the deployment of Egyptian combat aircraft and ground troops.
Certainly enough, this was a blatant lie: after all, during 1966,
Assad and Moukiiad took care to reactivate disused airfields at as-
Seen (about 100km east of Damascus) and Marj Ruhayyil (30km
south of the city) – both from the times of the French Mandate
– and had each of them equipped with 2,440-metre-long runways
and eight hardened aircraft shelters capable of housing MiG-21s.
Ammanullah Khan, saw the Syrian pilots flying the manoeuvre
and asked to join Mohammed in perfecting it to a level where
it became the standard defensive tactic of SyAAF MiG-21
fliers. A year later, an Egyptian MiG-17 unit was deployed
to Syria to bolster its defences. The commander of that
squadron, Muhammed Zaki Okasha, saw the Syrians training
the manoeuvre, and asked one of them to teach him how to
fly it. Much to the displeasure of the Pakistanis – concerned
the Egyptians might reveal it to the Indians that served on
exchange tours there – Mohammad did so. Of course, Okasha
then ‘brought’ the Zero-Speed Manoeuvre to Egypt and it soon
became a standard defensive tactics for local MiG-21 pilots.
During the October 1973 War, it became the source of such
Israeli legends about a ‘crazy Egyptian pilot’, that ‘stood his
MiG-21 on the tail’. Foremost, it was in Egypt that the Soviets
– present in the country in large numbers from 1970 until 1972
– saw the Egyptian pilots fly this manoeuvre, and from where
they brought it home.
Of course, more than 20 years later, when the Pugachov
Cobra was flown by Soviet test pilots (and only test pilots!) in
Su-27s for the first time, nobody cared any more about who
it was that had originally developed this manoeuvre and flew
it in a MiG-21. Indeed, thanks to the widespread anti-Arab
sentiments (and anti-Syria in particular) in the West and the
East, hardly anybody would come to credit ‘some unknown
Syrian pilot’ – Mohammed Mansour – with its invention.
