Russian Fighter
Do American or Russian fighter jets have better quality?
On average, does a typical American or Russian fighter jet have better quality, based on performance and reliability?
Woody's answer was good, but I can tell you from closely examining Russian aircraft, and also working on U.S. built aircraft, that ours might be better by a very tiny margin, but I can tell you that Russian aircraft are far better engineered and constructed than U.S. aircraft. I have been working on U.S. built aircraft for 34 years, and have come across probably 10 Russian aircraft during that time, all the way from AN2 biplanes to Mig 29's.
When I was a young mechanic, everyone said Russian aircraft were crude, hammered together, with rough finishes, built by unskilled labor working in farm fields. This was back in the 70's. After working in aviation for several years, I finally got to closely examine a Mig 15.
Contrary to everything I had been told, the surface finish was flawless. The riveting was gorgeous. And on top of all that, the aircraft was clearly and deliberatley designed to be maintained. The hydraulic lines had "S" curves or loops in them to make them easy to remove and install without bending them. The servicing points were clearly delineated. Unlike U.S. aircraft, the servicing points didn't tell you to go look in a manual for service information. The servicing information was right there.I can't read Cyrillic, but I know enought to understand Newton-Meters and kg numbers.
Every access door that you opened gave you complete and full access to whatever was underneath.
The SAME thing has been repeated on EVERY Russian aircraft I have come across since. The difference is that U.S. engineers never actually build anything, whereas Russian Student engineers spend half their time at the design computer, and the other half on the shop floor, actually building things. As one of my aircraft mechanic buddies put it "It's AMAZING how smart you get when you actually have to fix the sh** you designed!" There were no hidden cannon plugs, static ports, etc. Everything was designed for service. I have no doubt the same attention was paid to the engineering inside. My opinions have really changed over the years. Just as a patriot, I'd like to say that "Ours are better". Unfortunately, I can't say that. Ours may be good, but the Russian aircraft are designed to fly, fight, and be fixed much more quickly and easily than ours. The only aerospace engineering that even comes close is Boeing. They are also actually pretty good. Europeans like Airbus you can forget about. They are the worst engineers ever, from nearly every standpoint. If they get discipline, they might actually get competent in another 20 years or so.
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