The Sukhoi S-37 was an experimental prototype of which only a single airframe was constructed.
Commisioned by the Soviet Air Force in 1983, the project survived the Soviet collapse, made its first flight on September 25th 1997 and was a contender for the next generation MFI (multifunctional frontline fighter), just as the MiG Project 1.44 was.
The S-37 is a large aircraft, its wingspan is twice the size of that of its western forward-swept wing counterpart the Grumman X-29.
The S-37 was used to try out advanced technologies such as forward-swept wings, composite wing panels, a digital fly-by-wire system with side-stick control and a 'glass cockpit' with multi-function color displays.
The S-37 was meant to be fitted with advanced AL-41F thrust-vectoring turbofans but was instead fitted with M-30F turbojets, similar to those fitted to the MiG-31. The M-30F engines were meant to be fitted with thrust-vectoring nozzles at a later stage but this never happened.
As an MFI contender the S-37 was fitted with a large, albeit shallow, internal weapons bay and with provisions for a gun, pylons for the wings and fuselage and for an advanced multi-mode radar.
In the end neither the S-37 nor the MiG Project 1.44 was put into production, however the knowledge gained from the S-37 did contribute to the development of the Su-35 and Su-57.
In 2002 Sukhoi re-designated the S-37 as Su-47 and in the meantime the aircraft also received some modifications.
Some visible differences between the Su-47 and the S-37 are:
The Su-47 airframe was stored in the open at Ramenskoye/Zhukovsky airbase for about a decade before it was included in the static display at the MAKS-2019 air show.
Finding accurate scale plans of the S-37/Su-47 proved challenging for some time, fortunately nowadays it is a bit easier.
I ended up checking various drawings against pictures and found the set pictured here the most accurate.
The drawings are scaled to be printed at 144th scale by printing them at 300dpi printer resolution.
| S-37 dimensions | actual (m) | 1/144 (mm) | kit (mm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| wingspan | 16.7 | 116.0 | . |
| overall length (excl.pitot) | 22.6 | 156.9 | . |
Like all members of the Su-27 family, the S-37 has its nose at a downwards angle compared to the main fuselage.
With the S-37 the angle of the underside of the nose is at -3.5° relative to the wingroot centerline (relative to ground level, the wingroot centerline has a 2.5° incidence and the underside of the nose has a -1.0° incidence).
In 2000 Revell released a very nice 1/144 scale kit of the S-37. The Revell kit was made in Korea by Ace Corp. and in 2006 the kit was also released by Ace Corp. ('Suchoj S-37 Berkut', cat.nr. 1400).
A different 1/144 scale 'Su-47' kit was released in 2007 by Trumpeter.
Despite resembling the real aircraft quite well, the Revell/Ace kit does contain some flaws:
The wings are 1.5mm too small in chord at the roots, the difference gets smaller towards the tips, also the sweep-angle of the leading edge is too large.
The shape of the wing tips is too square, the rear of the tips should be cut back.
| Paints (to be) used | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| fuselage, overall | Anthracite | Revell 9 | |
| radome, dielectric panels | White | Tamiya Acrylic XF-2 Flat White | |
| cockpit interior | teal | XtraColor X629 Soviet Cockpit blue/green | |
Despite being of a different design, The Trumpeter kit does share some flaws with the Revell/Ace kit:
Apart from some similarities with the Revell/Ace kit, only the Trumpeter kit offers a weapons bay with interior and separate doors, a speed brake that can be posed open, an arrestor hook and pylons and stores to be fitted to the wings and fuselage.
Note that I can only find pictures of the weapons bay. I can not find any pictures of the speed brake and it looks like the arrestor hook and the pylons were never fitted to the actual aircraft.
