The Sukoi T-10, the prototype of the Su-27 (NATO reporting name “Flanker”) makes its first flight. The Su-27 is the first of a new generation of Soviet fighters (along with the MiG-29 “˜Fulcrum’) to compete with, respectively, the US F-15 and F-16. Production numbers are in the low hundreds, and the type is flown by several other countries. Several successive aircraft, including the Su-30, -32, and -33 have been built around the basic Su-27 design.
The Air Force is on track to reach its annual goal of graduating 1,500 new pilots that had proved elusive to this point, one year after the service launched a sweeping overhaul of its undergraduate pilot training program, Air Education and Training Command said Sept. 14.
