Ukrainians seeking to help their Armed Forces are crowdfunding by selling a downed Russian Su-30SM Flanker-H fighter jet as souvenirs.
The team of aviation enthusiasts at the Fuselage Creations is turning wreckage from the newest Russian fighter aircraft into key fobs and selling them abroad to use that funding to buy equipment and vehicles for Ukraine’s armed forces.
In a message posted to Facebook, Fuselage Creations said that “The result of the failed ‘reconnaissance – bombing’ mission is -1 Flanker in russian air force, not the last downed one and not the last one we will offer.”
The modern aircraft is a Russian Su-30SM two-seater tactical fighter-bomber that the Ukrainian military says it shot down over in Mykolaiv Oblast. It is a rare aircraft assigned to the Russia Navy.
The downed aircraft had the tail number RF-33787, the call sign “45 Blue” and its own name IRKUT.
According to some reports, like one from TASS, the Su-30SM is a super-maneuverable, all-weather, generation 4++ two-seat fighter derived from the successful Indian Su-30MKI and Malaysian Su-30MKM, which began delivery to Russian forces in 2013.
The Russian-built Su-30SM is manufactured by Sukhoi Design Bureau mainly for Russia’s Air Force and Navy. It is an advanced model of the Su-30MK combat aircraft series. In addition to Kazakhstan and Russia, the armed forces of Algeria, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Uganda, Venezuela and Vietnam aircraft of Su-30MK series.