In addition to writing for Aviation Week Network, Maxim holds a key position at Russia's Air Transport Observer magazine (www.ato.ru). In the past he was in charge of several ATO sister aerospace publications and earlier worked for the Moscow-based CAST defense think-tank.
Maxim has a degree on international relations from MGIMO University, Moscow, Russia, and for several years worked at the Russian Foreign Ministry.
MOSCOW — Static fatigue tests already are under way here on a Sukhoi T-50 prototype airframe, according to Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin, the chief of the Russian air force. The T-50 is being developed by Sukhoi to meet the air force’s fifth-generation fighter requirement, known as PAK FA. The Russian air force commander says that a first flight is due in November.
The first series production Yak-130 Mitten combat trainer for the Russian air force (left) will be on static display at the MAKS 2009 air show in Zhukovsky this week. Assembled at the Sokol plant in Nizhny Novgorod, it was flown for the first time in May and is the initial one of 12 Yak-130s ordered by the air force in 2005.
The Kamov Ka-52 attack helicopter is expected to finally begin trials with the Arbalet radar in place at the end of August following a redesign of the installation and the antenna. Initial government testing of the Ka-52—dubbed the Alligator—was concluded in 2008, but without the radar. The trials should be completed in 2010 if the latest timetable is kept, according to Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin, chief of the Russian air force.
