SU-26

About

The Sukhoi Su-26 is the work of the Sukhoi Design Bureau, the famed Soviet OKB whose military-aerobatic lineage produced some of the most demanding fighter aircraft of the Cold War. The Su-26 was developed in the early 1980s as a single-seat unlimited-aerobatic monoplane, designed to give Soviet competition pilots a domestic alternative to the Yakovlev aerobatic line. The prototype first flew in 1984, and the type went on to become one of the dominant airframes in world unlimited-aerobatic competition through the late 1980s and 1990s.

The Su-26 introduced a number of innovations that would influence subsequent generations of unlimited-aerobatic aircraft: extensive use of composite materials in the airframe (a first for Russian-built aerobatic airframes), a semi-reclined pilot seating position designed to improve g-tolerance during extreme maneuvers, and the Vedeneyev M14P 360-hp radial engine that gave the type its distinctive flat-front cowling. The airframe is stressed for +12/-10g, and Soviet and post-Soviet pilots flew the Su-26 to multiple World Aerobatic Championship medals.

The unmistakable Su-26 silhouette — short-coupled mid-wing layout, distinctive flat-fronted cowling, and the broad fuselage characteristic of Russian aerobatic design — appears in foam, balsa, and giant-scale Su-26 RC kits at modern competition fly-ins. The type continues to be produced in small numbers and flown competitively even decades after its first flight.

In the simulator

A demanding aerobatic mount with the distinctive Russian design philosophy. The Su-26 in our sim has the heavier feel of a Sukhoi-designed airframe — substantial inertia, generous control authority, and the kind of stable-but-aggressive handling that competition pilots train for. Use it for the unlimited-aerobatic vocabulary: vertical lines, knife-edge passes, slow rolls, and hovering on the prop. A natural sibling of the Kapanina SU-26 (CV Planes Pack 4) — same airframe, different competition livery.