Along with Mikhoyan's MiG-29 Fulcrum it was one of the types in the late 1980s that shocked much of the Western world when they appeared at Russian air shows. Little did anyone know at the time that the Su-27 was going to spawn a whole family of highly competitive, highly effective, aircraft. Whilst the MiG has been overshadowed by the F-16 in the commercial world since the collapse of the U.S.S.R. the Sukhoi design has turned heads whenever it has appeared and has shown itself to be a financial winner. The Flanker was also allegedly Instrumental in the USAF getting the funding for its F-22 Raptor because once the top brass heard how their F-I5s had been controversially beaten up in joint exercises with Indian AF Su-27s, the money for the new American jet aircraft was soon appropriated from other projects.
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