Sukhoi Su - 7 The Sukhoi Su - 7 ( NATO designation name : Fitter - A ) was a swept wing , supersonic fighter aircraft developed by the Soviet Union in 1955 . Originally , it was designed as tactical , low - level dogfighter , but was not successful in this role . On the other hand , soon - introduced Su - 7B series became the main Soviet fighter - bomber and ground - attack aircraft of the 1960s . The Su - 7 was rugged in its simplicity but its shortcomings included short range and low weapon load . Design and development . Original Su - 7 fighters . On 14 May 1953 , after Joseph Stalin ' s death , the Sukhoi OKB was reopened and by the summer , it began work on a swept - wing front - line fighter . The first prototype , designated S - 1 , was designed to use the new Lyulka AL - 7 turbojet engine . It was the first Soviet aircraft to utilize the all - moving tailplane and a translating centerbody , a movable cone in the air intake for managing airflow to the engine at supersonic speeds . The aircraft also had a dramatic wing sweep of 60° , irreversible hydraulically boosted controls , and an ejection seat of OKB ' s own design . The S - 1 first flew on 7 September 1955 with A . G . Kochetkov at the controls . Fitted with an afterburning version of the AL - 7 engine after the first 11 flights , the prototype set a Soviet speed record of 2 , 170 km / h ( 1 , 170 kn , 1 , 350 mph , Mach 2 . 04 ) in April 1956 . The prototype was intended to be armed with three 37 mm Nudelman N - 37 cannon and 32 spin - stabilized 57 mm ( 2 . 25 in ) unguided rockets in a ventral tray . The second prototype , S - 2 , introduced some aerodynamic refinements . Testing was complicated by the unreliable engine and S - 1 was lost in a crash on 23 November 1956 , killing its pilot I . N . Sokolov . Only 132 had been produced between 1957 – 1960 , and the aircraft entered service as Su - 7 in 1959 . Su - 7B fighter - bomber . On 31 July 1958 , Soviet tactical aviation ( " Frontovaya Aviatsiya " , фронтовая авиация ) tasked Sukhoi with developing a ground - attack variant of the Su - 7 , which could replace the scrapped Ilyushin Il - 10 . The resulting prototype , S - 22 , incorporated structural refinements for high - speed , low - altitude operations . It first flew in March 1959 , and entered service in 1961 as the Su - 7B . Operationally , Su - 7s were hampered by a high landing speed of 340 – 360 km / h , as dictated by the thin , highly - swept wing . Combined with poor visibility from the cockpit , and lack of an instrument landing system , it made operations very difficult , especially in poor weather or on poor airfields . In 1961 - 1962 , Sukhoi experimented with blown flap s on S - 25 but the benefit was too small to warrant implementation . JATO rockets tested on S - 22 - 4 proved more useful and were incorporated into Su - 7BKL . Attempts to improve takeoff and landing performance eventually resulted in the Sukhoi Su - 17 . Operational history . Su - 7A fighter . The front - line fighter version saw limited operational use in the Far East from 1958 , but by 1959 , a decision was made to proceed with production of the MiG - 21 , and less than 200 units were deployed . The Su - 7A was retired in 1965 . They never saw combat . Su - 7B fighter - bomber . Su - 7B and its variants became the main Soviet ground - attack aircraft of the 1960s . They were also widely exported ( 691 planes , including also some trainers ) . However , the very short combat radius and need for long runways limited its operational usefulness . On the other hand , despite its notoriously heavy controls , the Su - 7 was popular with pilots for its docile flight characteristics , simple controls and considerable speed even at low altitudes . It also had a reputation for easy maintenance . From 1977 - 1986 the Su - 7s remaining in Soviet service have been replaced by Su - 17 and MiG - 27 . Egypt . The Su - 7 saw combat with Egypt in the 1967 Six Day War , the subsequent War of Attrition , and saw use in the Yom Kippur War by the Egyptians to attack Israeli ground forces . India . The Indian Air Force ( IAF ) used the Su - 7 extensively in the 1971 war with Pakistan . Six squadrons , totaling in 140 aircraft , flew almost 1 , 500 offensive sorties during the war , and undertook the bulk of the daytime attack efforts . The IAF managed to retain a very high operational tempo with its Su - 7s , peaking at a sortie rate of six per pilot per day . Fourteen Su - 7s were lost during the war , mostly due to AA fire . After the war was over , it was found that the aircraft had a high survivability , being able fly home safely despite receiving heavy damage . For example , Wing Commander H . S . Mangat ' s Su - 7 was badly damaged by a Sidewinder missile fired from PAF MiG - 19 . The impact was so severe that half the rudder was missing , the elevators , ailerons and flaps were severely damaged , and half the missile was stuck in the chute pipe . The pilot made it back to his base . The death of at least one Indian pilot can be attributed , at least indirectly , to poor cockpit design . A pilot set his seating at a dangerous position " because he found the bomb sight and the front gun sight easier to operate " while in that position , and was killed on ejection . Variants . A total of 1 , 847 Su - 7 and its variants were built .