It was all out there on his company website, that he ran with his son. He had patents to his name for all these low RCS flying disc designs. Being ethnic Tajik, he spoke Persian fluently and visited Iran many times, his company had former MIG and Sukhoi designers, some 20 of them came to Malek Ashtar University to design this fighter and its advanced trainer version along with HESA engineers.
Shafagh itself stalled because of multiple reasons:
- lack of RD-5000 afterburners from Russia
- Iran was totally dependent at that time for Avionics and combat suite
- Mukhamedov's company went down with his declining health
- Iranian focus shifted to Missile power for strike and Air defence for interception.
But the Project laid the groundswork for the future generation of Iranian combat aviation projects. We have evidence in form of the following:
- Saegheh I/II tech demonstrators, both had the exact same YF-17/FA-18 or Shafagh's V-Tail configuration.
- I personally feel that Qaher-313 project was just some group inside HESA trying to revive whatever they worked on with Mukhamedov OKB.
- Every project that came out of Iran after that was F-5E/F + YF-17 + Shafagh. You will have Saeqeh with Shafagh's air-intakes with V-tails of YF-17. Qaher F313 was X-36 with Shafaghs V-tails.
(Northrop shared YF-17/FA-18 designs with Iran).
With engine problem being solved through Jahesh turbofan progression into a larger afterburner version or OWJ J90, along with Kowsar's quite advanced avionics suite we can probably predict that the actual end product of this 20+ years of research will yield a 4++ to 5.0 generation fighter from the labs of HESA in few years, maybe between 2025-2030 if funds are loosened. Mukhamedov OKB gave that concept years ago in form of a fighter for IRIAF called "M-ATF". Something very similar is going to fly IMO in a few years with Shafagh's advanced aerodynamics for all aspect extremely low RCS (or whatever they learned from research on X-36 like Qaher), Saegheh I/II V-tails for high angle of attacks, and Kowsar's even improved Avionics package, Bayyenat-AESA radar and FBW etc. Iranian equivalent to KF-21 which will eventually see mass production to replace everything in IRIAF/IRGC-AF except F-14AM and the newly purchased Su-35S. This is one of the reasons we never see mass induction of Saegheh I/II, Kowsar-I or any light fighter from China. Something much better is yet to come.