Did the Russians EVER make a quality aircraft? Something you would be comfortable to be airborne in?

Answer 1

They've built a few that I'd be comfortable with. Military stuff, not the civilian. Those things give me the heebie-jeebies. In particular, I've always sort of lusted after the little L-29 Delphine and would have no qualms about flying it. Late MiGs and even more so some of the later Sukhois (am I spelling that right?) might be okay, though I've never flown any of them. I like the way the engines breathe on the ground. No need to have pristine ramps, taxiways and runways to avoid FOD the way we do. They can operate those things off gravel, if my info is correct.

Answer 2

The time between overhauls for the Su-27, Russia's finest fighter, is 460 hours. The F-16 is 12000 hours, twice what was required by the US Air force.
American and European aircraft are built to be reliable, and repairable in the field, which lead to much longer times between overhauls of key components.
Russian aircraft cannot be serviced in the field, and must be returned to the service facilities every several hundred hours to fix problems that would be very small to an American or European aircraft.
Its not because they make bad products, its because russian aircraft were not expected to last very long in combat, so they didnt need long operational lives.
Russian airlines were not run for profit, so the same was expected out of them.
until the mid-90's nobody in Russia had any experience whatsoever with field serviceable aircraft. There are still a huge lack of qualified people to service aircraft in the field, so there has been very little pressure on Russian companies to make field serviceable aircraft.

Answer 3

Commercial Aircraft no, Fighter Aircraft yes. The Late Migs

Answer 4

Old habits die hard..and for decades these folks never had to produce anything of quality..one of the WONDERS of Communism. Therefore I'd feel less than comfy flying in a Russian civilian aircraft...never mnd the shoddy build quality, it's the maintenance I'd be worried about.

Here..try this..go to YOUTUBE and type in "RUSSIAN AIRCRAFT CRASHES"...you'll be amazed at some of the stuff you will see.

Give um 20 years...they'll come around...until then it's nothing but Boeing and some Airbus for this frequent flier.

Answer 5

Admittely, some Russian airline practices leave a lot to be desired - but only because they are not subject to the same stringent maintenance practices that UK & US airlines employ.

However, in the military world - the Russian's produce kit that is easily comparable to anything that we have. Russian military aircraft are designed to operate in extremely harsh environments and are thus probably in their own league when it comes to survivability and "ruggedness". Speak to any pilot who has flown Eastern Bloc kit and they will testify to that.

Dont think for one second that the Russians are any less advanced in any respect - they only suffer from budget constraints (like any other country save the US).

Answer 6

The Russians make very good aircraft, but nothing close to our aircrafts.I'll only site one in particular 117 stealth.No war plane is comfortable to fly.

Answer 7

ive flown aeroflot they have the worst flight record, the batrooms smells the plane up after an hour, the plane takes forever to ascend, the flight stewards dont speak english, the seats are too thin and dont recline, the engine sounded like it was struggling, the attendants had to spray airfresshenr because the cabin smelled liked like sh--i t but they were the cheapest to fly into ireland Id never do it again

Answer 8

Depends on where the pilots and mechanics were trained.

I don't think the building was an issue so much as the maintaining and flying of the aircraft.

Personal Opinion.

Answer 9

I don't think so. I would never fly in a russian made aircraft...

Answer 10

I think they've made several excellent airframes, including civilian models. Especially the small to mid size STOL planes. some of them out perform western equivalents and withstand abuses. Engines? that's different story...