About the life and work of the chief test pilot of the Sukhoi Design Bureau
Before a new aircraft enters service, someone must be the first to lift it into the air. Engineers calculate in advance how the car will behave in different modes, but only the one who checks the calculations in the sky will know for sure. This is the job of test pilots, and one of the star names in this profession is Sergey Bogdan. The chief test pilot of the Sukhoi Design Bureau, which is part of the United Aircraft Corporation Rostec, Hero of Russia, he was the first to take to the skies the fifth-generation fighter Su-57 and many other machines.
How the profession works, in which you need to "go over the edge", is in our material.
Planes over Voskresensk
Sergey Bogdan grew up in the Moscow suburb of Voskresensk. This city is on the landing course of the test airfield in Zhukovsky, and throughout Sergei's childhood, a variety of planes landed over the houses. His father served in the air force and always spoke warmly about her. "I had it in my childhood subconscious that aviation is very cool," the pilot recalls.
Bogdan studied flight at the Borisoglebsky Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots named after V.P. Chkalov, from which he graduated in 1983. After that, he served in the Leningrad Military District, in Mongolia, and in the Crimea. In the difficult 1990s, when many people left aviation due to lack of money and reduced flights, Bogdan remained faithful to the profession and took further steps in it.
In 1991, he entered the Test pilot school, today it is a Test Pilot Training Center. A year later, he also became a student at the Moscow Aviation Institute: it's not enough for a test pilot to be able to fly, you need to understand how the car works and speak the same language with the designers. Since 2000, Sergey Bogdan has been a Sukhoi test pilot. He participated in the tests of the Su-24M2, Su-25UTG, Su-25BM, Su-25TM, Su-25SM, Su-27M, Su-27KUB, Su-27SM, Su-27SM3, Su-27SKM, Su-30KN, Su-30MKK, Su-30MK2, Su-30MKI, Su-30MKA, Su-30MKM, Su-30SM, Su-30SMD, Su-30SM3, Su-34, Su-35UB, Su-35, Su-47 Berkut, flying laboratories of the T-50, Su-57 aircraft, including a two-seat version of the aircraft, and other machines. He mastered 64 types and modifications of various aircraft, with a total flight time of 8,200 hours, flying more than 7,900 hours on maneuverable aircraft and fighters, of which more than 5,300 hours were tested.
Without the right to make mistakes
Bogdan formulates the essence of his profession in an interview with the Military Acceptance program of the Zvezda TV channel as follows: "In his profession, a test pilot goes over the edge." Each new aircraft has modes and boundaries in which it will be operated. At the testing stage, these limits are only tentative. The tester goes beyond them, studies what is happening to the machine, and then steps back and assigns a limit for combat pilots. These restrictions are built into the aircraft itself, and those who fly it every day will not go over the edge.
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| Sergey Bogdan. |
| Source: United Aircraft Corporation |
The most interesting work, according to Bogdan, starts from scratch: "A brand new aircraft. No one knows, no one will teach you from active pilots, will not tell you about his behavior." Of course, theoretical experts will explain and show a lot, but the task of the tester is to "solve the most difficult task methodically so that it is absolutely safe."
Many people think that a test pilot is improvising in the sky. In fact, the opposite is true. Maximum reliability is required from him, which means that you only need to do what is written in the flight assignment. Improvisation is allowed only in a critical situation, when there are two choices left: to disappear or to be saved. Bogdan considers everything else to be a violation of flight discipline. And the cost of making mistakes in this profession is very high.
Stellar aerobatics
Demonstrating aerobatics is not Bogdan's main job, but it was he who made the pilot a world star. Crowds flocked to the Su-57 at air shows in China, India and the United Arab Emirates, and Bogdan himself was surrounded by journalists and fans asking for an autograph.
The screening program is set up in the same way as aircraft tests: from simple to complex. First, the figures are practiced at medium altitudes — from 3,000 to 8,000 meters. Then the aerobatics are gradually "compressed": the complex of figures is performed at an altitude of at least 1,000 meters, after which it is tested in the airfield area, it is at least 500 meters, then at least 300, then 200, and already at the final stage, the aircraft is introduced into some figures at altitudes of 100-150 meters. But the output of all descending figures is at a height of at least 200 meters.
Photo: United Aircraft Corporation Bogdan calls the "bell" the most stressful aerobatic figure from the point of view of safety, when the plane lifts its nose and freezes at the top. If at this moment one engine fails or the thrust is lost, a strong torque will occur and the car will begin to descend randomly. The high reliability of Russian aircraft engines and aircraft in general allows performing such maneuvers at low altitudes.
Five types per day
A probationer's life is spent constantly traveling: business trips take 250-300 days a year. The flight crew, together with engineers and designers, travels between the test sites on a Yak-40 service bus, a "factory minibus". It happens that Bogdan lands a fighter jet in the evening, and less than an hour and a half later he is already at the airport to fly on.
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| Sergey Bogdan. |
| Source: United Aircraft Corporation |
The work of a test pilot takes place in a wide variety of climatic conditions - in the Russian North, in the hot deserts of Africa, and in the humid tropical jungles. Sergei Bogdan had to fly over the desert at altitudes from 10-15 meters to 150 meters for two hours on maneuverable fighters. "Every 150 kilometers or so, the shape of the Sahara changes. One minute it's sand, the next it's suddenly a rocky desert, a gray stone. In Venezuela, where the highest waterfall, Salto Angel, is located, a group of Su-30s flew over the jungle," he says.
It is for this diversity that Bogdan appreciates the profession. Once, in one flight day, he performed test flights on five different types of aircraft.
The new generation
Sergey Bogdan has been working in the Su-57 program since 2003. The fighter has been supplied to the troops for more than five years, and the Sukhoi Design Bureau continues to improve the machine and develop the project.
Bogdan is currently testing a two-seat version of the car. According to him, there is no fundamental difference with a single seat yet, the aerodynamic differences are insignificant. But the aircraft will have new features: a more productive computing core and new functions, primarily working with large groups of drones. The two-seater car is also useful for training, especially for foreign pilots who have not flown on "Dry land" before.
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| Sergey Bogdan. |
| Source: United Aircraft Corporation |
Bogdan does not see any critical competition in unmanned aircraft. There's enough work for everyone for the flight crew. "Pilots will still be in demand. I am deeply convinced of this," he believes.
And when asked if young people should enter the profession, Sergey Bogdan answers confidently: "If there is an opportunity, of course, you should become a test pilot. Because you're going to be doing a very interesting job, and that job will be very diverse."
