Bing Maps Has Revealed Russia’s Secret Stealth Fighter Jet

Bing Maps Has Revealed Russia’s Secret Stealth Fighter Jet

Bing Maps is apparently really great at one thing: revealing top-secret military information. After capturing a top-secret military base, Bing has now caught a stealth Russian aeroplane that’s been shrouded in mystery.

The Bing Maps image above shows Russia’s MIG Project 1.44, Russia’s first attempt at building a stealth fighter jet. A jet that Russia might have sent to China to kick start China’s stealth program. A jet that was supposed to be Russia’s answer for the F-22 Raptor.

According to Foreign Policy, the 1.44 plane (it’s the bigger plane in that image above) was designed with “stealth-like angles, an internal weapons bay and supposedly used electronic countermeasures and special coatings to help reduce its radar signature.” The goal was to make the plane highly manoeuvrable and really, really fast. However, the 1.44 plane was supposedly shelved by Russia in 2001 and thrown in storage. The Bing Maps image shows that that’s not exactly the case.

What’s interesting is that China’s J-20 stealth fighter (revealed in 2010) looks a lot like the Russia 1.44 plane. MiG denied ever giving 1.44 plans to China but a Russian official did say, “it looks like they got access… to documents related to the Mikoyan.” If the plane is out of storage, maybe Russia has been sharing a little secrets here and there. [Foreign Policy]


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