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[The_Hunter]

[CommanderJB]

Correct, it is an Su-35. A 'Bort' is Russian for the aircraft's designation number (literally 'bureau number'), however; these are equivalent to Western registration codes but are military-only and are used to differentiate between specific different aircraft of the same series. For example, aircraft three in a frontal Su-27 regiment might be Bort Blue 03. The aircraft above (able to be differentiated by its yellow/green/brown daze camo pattern) is technically Bort Black 901, but because all of the Su-35s so far have had black numbers I dropped the extra designator as unnecessary. It was the first Su-35 airframe produced, which had its public debut at MAKS 2007. Bort 902, the white-and-grey/white-and-blue aircraft (it was repainted at one point) in the link I posted is the second test example and the first to use many of the new manufacturing techniques introduced in the Su-35 programme (shared with the PAK FA programme), and as such is a cleaner and sharper looking aircraft IMO. Bort 903 is a ground static airframe test example, and Bort 904 was to be the third flying prototype before it was destroyed during taxi testing after an engine control software fault put one of the jets to maximum power on the tarmac a couple of months back.

This post has been edited by CommanderJB: 6 Jul 2009, 12:03