The "Kulbit" (also known as the "Frolov chakra") is an aerial maneuver developed by

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n pilots in which the aircraft performs an extremely tight loop, often not much wider than the length of the aircraft itself. It differs from the traditional

inside loop Aerobatic maneuvers are flight paths putting aircraft in unusual attitudes, in air shows, dogfights or competition aerobatics. Aerobatics can be performed by a single aircraft or in formation with several others. Nearly all aircraft are capab ...

as it uses

post-stall In fluid dynamics, a stall is a reduction in the lift coefficient generated by a foil (fluid mechanics), foil as angle of attack exceeds its critical angle of attack, critical value.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition ...

maneuvering capabilities, a type of

supermaneuverability Supermaneuverability is the capability of fighter aircraft to execute tactical maneuvers that are not possible with purely Supermaneuverability#Aerodynamic maneuverability vs supermaneuverability, aerodynamic techniques. Such maneuvers can inv ...

. Like most post-stall maneuvers, it demonstrates pitch control outside the normal flight envelope wherein pitch control is made possible by having aerodynamic flow over the aircraft's

elevator An elevator (American English) or lift (Commonwealth English) is a machine that vertically transports people or freight between levels. They are typically powered by electric motors that drive traction cables and counterweight systems suc ...

s or

stabilator A stabilator is a fully movable aircraft horizontal stabilizer (aircraft), stabilizer. It serves the usual functions of longitudinal stability, control and stick force requirements otherwise performed by the separate parts of a conventional hori ...

s. The name "Kulbit" is derived from the

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

Кульбит, meaning "

somersault A somersault (also ''flip'', ''heli'', and in gymnastics ''salto'') is an acrobatics, acrobatic exercise in which a person's body Rotation#Sports, rotates 360° around a horizontal axis with the feet passing over the Human head, head. A somersau ...

". The alternate name, "Frolov's Chakra", refers to Russian test pilot Yevgeni Frolov, the pilot who first carried out the maneuver, while "

chakra A chakra (; ; ) is one of the various focal points used in a variety of ancient meditation practices, collectively denominated as Tantra, part of the inner traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism. The concept of the chakra arose in Hinduism. B ...

" is a

yogic Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...

term, meaning "vortex" or "whirlpool". The Kulbit drastically decreases the aircraft's speed and could theoretically be used to cause a pursuing aircraft to overshoot its target. The maneuver is closely related to the famous "

Pugachev's Cobra In aerobatics, the cobra maneuver (or just the ''cobra''), also called ''dynamic deceleration'', among other names , is a dramatic and demanding maneuver in which an airplane flying at a moderate speed abruptly raises its nose momentarily to a v ...

" maneuver, but the Kulbit completes the loop that the Cobra almost immediately cuts off.

Aircraft known to be able to execute the "Kulbit"

The following aircraft are currently known to be able to execute the "Kulbit": *

F-22 Raptor The Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor is an American twin-engine, jet-powered, all-weather, supersonic stealth fighter aircraft. As a product of the United States Air Force's Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program, the aircraft was de ...

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F-22 Raptor Kulbit video
/ref> * MiG-29OVTDouble Kulbit by MiG-29OVT
/ref> *

Sukhoi Su-30 The Sukhoi Su-30 (; NATO reporting name: Flanker-C/G/H) is a twin-engine, two-seat supermaneuverable fighter aircraft developed in the Soviet Union in the 1980s by Russia's Sukhoi Aviation Corporation. It is a multirole fighter for all-weath ...

Sukhoi Su-35 The Sukhoi Su-35 (-35; NATO reporting name: Flanker-E/M, occasionally nicknamed "Super Flanker") is the designation for two improved derivatives of the Sukhoi Su-27, Su-27 air-defence fighter. They are single-seat, twinjet, twin-engine, super ...

Sukhoi Su-37 The Sukhoi Su-37 (-37; NATO reporting name: Flanker-F; popularly nicknamed "Terminator") was a single-seat twin-engine aircraft designed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau which served as a technology demonstrator. It met the need to enhance pilot c ...

Kulbit by SU-37
/ref> * Sukhoi Su-47 Berkut *

Sukhoi Su-57 The Sukhoi Su-57 (; NATO reporting name: Felon) is a twin-engine stealth multirole fighter aircraft developed by Sukhoi. It is the product of the PAK FA (, prospective aeronautical complex of front-line aviation) programme, which was in ...

All have performed the Kulbit in airshow displays in the past.

References

External links

A page containing a movie file of the Kulbit maneuver (listed as "Somersault, loop min radius")

Video showing the Su-30MKI Flanker showing off its Thrust Vectoring and doing a Cobra and a Kulbit
{{Aerobatics Aerial maneuvers