Commander Lawrence E. Flint Jr., who performed a zoom climb to a world record of 98,557 feet (30,040 meters) while piloting an F4H-1 Phantom. Design The Su-9's fuselage and tail surfaces resembled those of the Su-7, but unlike the swept wing of that aircraft, the "Fishpot" used a 53° delta wing with conventional slab tailplanes. It shared Sukhoi features like the rear-fuselage air brakes as well as the Su-7's Lyulka AL-7 turbojet engine and nose intake. The translating shock cone contains the radar set. The Su-9 was developed from earlier work on a developmental aircraft designated T-3, to which the Su-9 was nearly identical. Internally at Sukhoi, the Su-9 was known as the T-43. The delta wing of the Su-9 was adopted because of its lower drag in the supersonic flight regime. Its greater volume also allowed a modest fuel capacity increase compared to the Su-7. The Su-9 was capable of Mach 1.8 at altitude or about Mach 1.14 with missiles. However, its fuel fraction remained minimal, and its operational radius was limited. Furthermore, rotation speeds were even higher than the Su-7, which was already high at 360 km/h (225 mph). Unlike the Su-7, which had cumbersome controls but docile handling characteristics, the "Fishpot" had light and responsive controls but was unforgiving of pilot error. The Su-9 had primitive R1L (NATO reporting name "High Fix") radar in the shock cone and was armed with four K-5 (AA-1 "Alkali") beam-riding air-to-air missiles. Like all beam-riders, the K-5 was so limited as to be nearly useless for air-to-air combat . Unlike the Su-7 and later Su-15, no Su-9 carried cannon armament, although two fuselage pylons were reserved for the carriage of drop tanks. A two-seat trainer version designated Su-9U was also produced in limited numbers (about 50 aircraft). It received the NATO reporting name "Maiden." It had a full armament and radar system with displays in both cockpits, allowing trainees to practice all aspects of the interception mission. Still, because the second seat further reduced the already meager fuel fraction, it was not genuinely combat-capable. The Su-9 has been frequently mistaken for the MiG-21 due to the many similarities in design. The primary distinguishing factors are size and the Su-9's bubble canopy. Variants Development of the Su-9. T-405 Prototype model of the Su-9. Su-9 Production variant, about 1,100 built. Su-9U Training variant, mounting the standard avionics suite without weapon systems or hardpoints.