Sukhoi Su-7 Fitter
The Sukhoi Su-7, NATO reporting name Fitter-A, is a Soviet swept-wing supersonic jet designed by the Sukhoi bureau. Its S-1 prototype first flew on 7 September 1955. The pure fighter was built in small numbers — 132 aircraft — after production priority went to the MiG-21, but the Su-7B fighter-bomber became the Soviet Union's main ground-attack aircraft of the 1960s, and Wikipedia's accounting puts total production of all versions at 1,847 aircraft. Widely exported, the type fought with Egypt in the Six-Day and Yom Kippur wars and with India in the 1971 war with Pakistan. Soviet Su-7s were replaced by Su-17s and MiG-27s by 1986, and examples survive in museums.
Why It Mattered
The Sukhoi design bureau was reopened after Stalin's death, and its first task was a swept-wing front-line fighter built around the new Lyulka AL-7 turbojet. In April 1956 the S-1 set a Soviet speed record, reaching 2,170 km/h. As a fighter it was soon passed over in favour of the MiG-21, and only 132 were built. Reworked into the Su-7B fighter-bomber, the same basic design became the main Soviet ground-attack aircraft of the 1960s. The War Zone calls it the Soviet Union's first-generation supersonic attack jet, for which nuclear strike became one of the most important duties. More than 1,800 were built in all, and the type was exported widely.
Design Notes
The design combined a wing swept at 60 degrees with a single Lyulka AL-7 turbojet fed through a nose intake with a movable cone. It was the first Soviet aircraft to use an all-moving tailplane and a translating centrebody, and its controls were irreversible hydraulically boosted units. Testing was complicated by the unreliable engine, and on 23 November 1956 the S-1 crashed, killing its pilot. For the ground-attack version, the S-22 prototype incorporated structural refinements for high-speed operations at low altitude, and it first flew in March 1959. The highly swept wing dictated a landing speed of 340–360 km/h, and operations were very difficult, especially in poor weather. The type's short combat radius and need for long runways limited its operational usefulness, though pilots found its flight characteristics docile and it had a reputation for easy maintenance. Attempts to improve take-off and landing performance produced the rough-field Su-7BKL, with skids beside the main gear, JATO rockets and twin brake parachutes, and eventually the variable-geometry Su-17.
Operational History
Only 132 fighters were produced between 1957 and 1960; the type entered service as the Su-7 in 1959, and the fighter version was retired in 1965. The Su-7B prototype first flew in March 1959, and the fighter-bomber entered service in 1961, becoming the main Soviet ground-attack aircraft of the 1960s. Wikipedia gives total production as 1,847 aircraft of all versions, manufactured from 1957 to 1972, among them 431 Su-7Bs and 411 two-seat trainers. Exports accounted for 691 aircraft, including some trainers. Nuclear strike was a central duty: in August 1962 a Su-7B delivered a live 244N bomb at the Semipalatinsk test site in an end-to-end test, and from 1967 Western intelligence noted Su-7s flying LABS-type nuclear delivery practice from bases in East Germany. Egypt flew the Su-7 in combat in the 1967 Six-Day War and the War of Attrition, and used it against Israeli ground forces in the Yom Kippur War. India acquired 140 Su-7s in 1967, and its six squadrons flew almost 1,500 offensive sorties in the 1971 war with Pakistan. After the war, the aircraft was found to have high survivability, flying home safely despite heavy damage. From 1977 to 1986, Su-17s and MiG-27s took over from the Su-7s that remained in Soviet service.
Afterlife
Egypt's surviving aircraft were retired in the mid-1980s, and India's last Su-7s were retired in 1986. Syria's aircraft remained in service until the 1990s before being phased out. Wikipedia reports the type still in limited service with North Korea, which received at least 18 aircraft in 1971 — a current-status claim that rests on tier D alone and is unconfirmed. Surviving aircraft are held by museums: the S-26 test aircraft is on display at the Russian Air Force Museum at Monino, and an Egyptian Su-7BMK is displayed at the Egyptian Military Museum in Cairo. In Poland, Vintage Aviation News records a two-seat Su-7U trainer in the Lubuskie Military Museum's collection. The type's design legacy continued in the variable-geometry Su-17, a separate type that Sukhoi developed from it.