Description

‘T6’ was the internal code given to the pre-production and undergoing tests airframes of the Soviet supersonic, all-weather attack aircraft – The Sukhoi Su-24, NATO code found as ‘Fencer’.

With the first prototype taking to the skies in May of 1967 and the first production airframe having completed her successful flight in the fall of 1971, the aircraft was formally accepted by the Soviet Air Force in February of 1975.

T6-22, serial number 10-18, is a unique and one-of-a-kind airframe designed specifically for the ‘Kaira’ laser targeting system testing. The result of the testing program performed by the T6-22 flying laboratory was the integration of Kaira system in the serial Sukhoi SU-24M series aircraft.

During the flight testing program, ’10-18’ was based at the Zhukovsky Air Base, where the aircraft was in active service of the Soviet Air Force up until the early 1990’s.

Decommissioned, the aircraft was transported to the Vasilkiv Air Base (Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic at the time), where she was used for training purposes at the Technical College located there. During her time in Vasilkiv, ‘T6’ began wearing the Ukrainian Trident National Emblem, as she became the asset of the Ukrainian Air Force (UAF), yet she never flew for UAF.

In 2021 the UAF donated this unique aircraft to the Odesa Aviation Museum located in Hydroport Airfield, where she was restored to her former glory and put on the public display.