SU-57 Felon Cockpit - US Fighter Pilots React

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U.S. fighter pilots share insights and opinions on the recently released photos of the SU-57 cockpit. What do you think? Greatest cockpit design ever? The Russians are aviation amateurs? The secret sauce to the Felon is what's behind the screens. The F-14A smoked this thing, TOMCATS! Leave your comments below!!!

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*The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.*
*Views presented are my own and do not represent the views of DoD or its Components.*

[Forscythe]

Nurse here. My (Australian) hospital uses blue like that shade a lot for "calming" reasons.

[TacticalEd]

The russians have two historical distinct blue/emerald cockpit colors.
MiG in the Soviet days had this very aggressive "emerald" and they now transitioned to a dull grey. Sukhoi on the other hand always had this grey/blue color which I find extremely pleasing to the eye.
Again, personal bias, but as a modeler Russian jets were always my favs. No offense boys! 😂

[dirmeep]

When modernization of su27 started, Russians experimented with side joystick. That is why su37 and su47 had side joysticks, but they decided for final modernized su27 - su35 to have central stick. About cockpit color, it is the same reason why surgeon suit is blue/green color.

[kylrean]

Y'all joke about the calming effect of the color. I don't doubt the idea, at least partially. Back in my earlier days, a carriers interior was mostly painted a light green for the same reason. Most are white now, and having worked in both, I much preferred the green.

[henrikwannheden]

This is the 051, the first prototype, which is nearly 15 years old by now. I'd wager that this is not the final say in cockpit design for the Su-57.

[andrewdavies]

The blue is chosen as research showed it reduced stress levels in comparison to the harder contrast of gun metal/black.

[alexs]

This cockpit is from T50 a testbed for Su57. Mind you T50 is 15+ years old and it's a testbed meaning that Su57 cockpit is completely different with additional systems etc....also Su57 cock is classified and there are no photos avalisble.

[xmeda]

Central stick also gives you option to fly/continue manouver using left hand while with sidestick you are done in case your right hand has some issue or is needed for some switch etc.

[Biohazard]

Suchoy design bureau actually tried side stick in one of the experimental models (if im not mistaken it was su-37 terminator). But actual pilots who tried it type of control stick hated it and prefer classic one in the center. This is basically the reason why we don't use it today.
It was mentioned couple of times in documentaries.

[SevPrime]

Keep in mind that this is a T-50 4th prototype cockpit and there is a chance the Su-57 to be quite different/improved. Also as people in the comments pointed it out the blue coloring of russian\soviet jets is for less eye strain and more calming effect on the brain of a pilot after long hours of missions etc

[VarkDriver]

When I flew F-111s, F-15s, and F-117s I would occasionally swap hands on the stick, for one reason or another. Side stick makes that a bit more difficult.

[tituan]

Russian guy here
The one thing that the English-speaking internet is constantly getting wrong is that the calming effect was never the main reason the cockpits were painted like this.
The main reason was the way that early NVGs reacted with this color at night. The cockpit just didn’t shine that bright with this color and thus it worked better than other colors. That’s it, that’s the idea.

For some reason, when seeing this question arise in English-speaking world, I always see the reason being “calming effect”, but again, it’s not what it is

[christianoutlaw]

1:32 Russians have a bit of a colorful history with that. The first non test zero-zero ejection came from a Su-24 where the stick caught the ejection handle and activated the seat. The channel Paper Skies did a detailed video on the incident awhile back.

[piper]

Pastel light blue and light green are used in hospitals as it is proven to be psychologically calming and relaxing colours. In aircraft applications same rule is applied plus the pastel or light blue blends with outside avoiding sudden hard contrast adjustments to the eyes as a red or black would cause.

[kylekyle]

The Russians just showed off their new generation flat nozzle engine for the SU-57 today. Unfortunately for now it’s only on a T-50 prototype but it looks very impressive especially with the build quality and how it’s off set. The nozzles also appear to show air vents for cooling 👀

[damien]

T-50 is already quite old, the cockpit looks neat. It would be interesting to find out how much the SU-57 has changed from this T-50

[ralgith]

Blue is a calming color, and is a nice secondary benefit. I doubt it is the primary reason.

[HampusBankler]

Center stick and force sensing stick isn't necessarily mutually exclusive. For instance, the Gripen has a center stick that moves very little.

[quicktastic]

The blue interior increases horsepower and makes the plane more maneuverable.

[WhiskyCardinalWes]

I like how the designers are forward thinking about _when_ the pilot will have to eject, rather than _if_ .