The Sukhoi Su-17 (Aircraft R) was a prototype

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

fighter. The name was later reused for an entirely different fighter-bomber, see

Sukhoi Su-17 The Sukhoi Su-17 (''izdeliye'' S-32) is a variable-sweep wing fighter-bomber developed for the Soviet Union, Soviet military. Its NATO reporting name is "Fitter". Developed from the Sukhoi Su-7, the Su-17 was the first variable-sweep wing airc ...

Development

The Su-17 was designed to closely match the theoretical

TsAGI The Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (also (Zhukovsky) Central Institute of Aerodynamics, russian: Центра́льный аэрогидродинами́ческий институ́т, ЦАГИ, Tsentral'nyy Aerogidrodinamicheskiy Institut, ...

calculations for

supersonic Supersonic speed is the speed of an object that exceeds the speed of sound ( Mach 1). For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C (68 °F) at sea level, this speed is approximately . Speeds greater than five times ...

performance. The aircraft had a 50°

swept wing A swept wing is a wing that angles either backward or occasionally forward from its root rather than in a straight sideways direction. Swept wings have been flown since the pioneer days of aviation. Wing sweep at high speeds was first investiga ...

fitted with air brakes and boosted controls. A unique feature was that in addition to an ejection seat, the entire nose section of the aircraft could separate from the rest of the airframe. The project was canceled with no flights due to problems with wing structure, ongoing difficulties with the development of the TR-3 engine, and the closure of the Sukhoi OKB. The only example was eventually used as a gunfire target.

Specifications (Su-17 interceptor)

References

{{Sukhoi aircraft Su-17 (1949) 1940s Soviet fighter aircraft Abandoned military aircraft projects of the Soviet Union