The document discusses the Cobra maneuver, an aerobatic maneuver performed by fighter jets where the aircraft pitches its nose vertically upwards without changing the direction of flight. It requires a thrust-to-weight ratio higher than 1 and can be performed by jets with thrust vectoring. The maneuver was made famous by Soviet test pilot Viktor Pugachev in 1989. Performing it requires careful energy management by the pilot as it reduces the aircraft's energy, leaving it vulnerable to other threats.
13. The Sukhoi Su-27 became
famous all around the
world for doing an
aerobatic maneuver,
named after the Soviet
test pilot Viktor
Pugachev, who performed
it publicly in 1989 at
the Paris Le Bourget air
show: the “Pugachev’s
Cobra”
Sukhoi SU-
27
History
16. What needed
In a plane without thrust vectoring but with a thrust-to-
weight ratio higher than 1, the drag towards the tail of
the plane can be used to pitch the nose forward again.
If the plane does have thrust vectoring, that can help the
re-orientation even more.
17.
18. Usually this recovery is achieved manually by the pilot.
“Automatic recovery of a combat aircraft from a completed
Cobra and Herbst maneuver: A sliding mode control based
scheme”, IEEE 978-1-4673-7993-9,
March,2016.
19.
20. When to perform
Fighter pilots are energy managers. Pugachev's cobra kills
energy, which means, if you use it, you better make sure:
you don’t get shot down as your opponent closes in on
you.
that once you have done the move, you make 100% sure you
kill the other aircraft.
that there is no other hostile lurking around, as, again,
you would have no energy to use to deal with that threat.
21. References
Ericsson,L.E.,” what makes the cobra maneuver possible?
”,AIAA-93-0183,January.1993.
Ericsson,L.E.,” Cobra maneuver unsteady aerodynamic
considerations ”, Journal of Aircraft, January, Vol. 32,
No. 1 : pp. 214-216.
William H.Mason. Configuration Aerodynamics. Virginia
Tech ,2006.
https://www.nasa.gov
