Su-22 Display Team
Country
Poland
Size
2 Aircraft
Base
Swidwin Air Base
The Su-22 Display Team was a tactical demonstration team of the Polish Air Force. The team was founded in 2011 and since then displayed all over Europe winning a number of awards such as the 'As The Crow Flies' Trophy at the Royal International Air Tattoo in 2014.
The team consisted of two Sukhoi Su-22 Fitters from the 21st tactical air base in Swidwin and performed both duo and solo displays.
A typical display of the Su-22 Fitter Demo team lasted about 10 minutes and the pilots demonstrated the variable-sweep wing capabilities of the Fitter with two opening flypasts and two different sweep wing configurations before breaking and showing the tactical capabilities of their aircraft such as high-speed low passes, the “bombing runs” during which the aircraft dives towards the ground to simulate a bomb drop, opposition passes and a number of missed approaches/go-arounds.
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Sukhoi Su-22M4 Fitter
The Sukhoi Su-17 (NATO reporting name: Fitter) is a Soviet variable-sweep wing fighter-bomber aircraft developed from the Sukhoi Su-7 fighter-bomber. It enjoyed a long career in Soviet, later Russian, service and was widely exported to communist and Middle Eastern air forces as the Su-20 and Su-22.
Seeking to improve the low-speed and take-off/landing performance of the Su-7B fighter-bomber, in 1963 the Sukhoi OKB with input from TsAGI created a variable-sweep wing technology demonstrator. The Su-7IG (internal designation S-22I, NATO designation "Fitter-B"), converted from a production Su-7BM, had fixed inner portions of the wing with movable outer segments which could be swept to 28°, 45°, or 62°. A fixed inner wing simplified construction, allowing the manufacturer to retain the Su-7 landing gear and avoiding the need for complex pivoting underwing hardpoints, and it minimized the shift in the centre of pressure relative to the centre of mass with the change in wing sweep. The new wing also had extensive leading-edge slats and trailing-edge flaps. Su-7IG first flew on 2 August 1966 with V. S. Ilyushin at the controls, becoming the first Soviet variable-geometry aircraft. Testing revealed that take-off and landing speeds had decreased by 50–60 km/h compared to the conventional Su-7.
The production aircraft was named Su-17 (NATO designation "Fitter-C", factory designation S-32) and was unofficially dubbed Strizh in service. Aside from the new wing, it differed from its predecessor Su-7 in having a new canopy and a dorsal fuselage spine for additional fuel and avionics. The Su-17 first flew on 1 July 1969 with E. K. Kukushev at the controls.
A total of 2,867 Su-17 and its variants were built, of which 1,165 were exported to 15 nations.
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