posted on Jan, 19 2020 @ 11:15 PM
a reply to:
ThePeaceMaker
Some part of it is physics. You want a long moment-arm, so the tails go back as far as you can. You want planform alignment for signature management.
You need a wing angle and shape that works well aerodynamically with your design performance goals.
Here the general shape and compromises are already proven. That means you save money on development, and you have a pretty good idea that your
modeling will be faithful to reality.
The shape itself is probably not ideal for what current doctrines and trends are, but it's easy and cheap (relatively speaking) to replicate. T-50
and J-20 are probably kinematically superior (particularly at supersonic speeds increasingly relevant), and if they are not, it's because of lack of
thrust. But again, easier to develop something around a proven design than start one from scratch.