Chinese L-15 flies!

The Hongdu L-15 advanced trainer aircraft made its maiden flight on 13 March 2006. It is based on the Yak-130 but features afterburning engines mounted further aft and wingtip missile rails (not seen on this prototype).


Video of maiden flight (WMV): tokyo.cool.ne.jp...

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Thats a very very nice looking piece of kit!

The Chinese sure are pushing ahead with their military modernisation...

Cheers for the video - short but sweet!

Tell me frankly, which one is best looking?
I give you guys 3 choses
Yak-130
T-50
and L-15

They all look the same to me

Shafaq which also is out as a trainer is one of the best and can compete with the top league.


[edit on 17-3-2006 by Mehran]

Speaks for itself

Looks are such a superficial category, but they what attracts us to aeroplanes as young kids so bearing that in mind I have to say that I like the look of the Yak 130 best

I think the L-15 looks coolest although the yellow primer could be improved upon.

The Yak-130 was the original idea, the Aermacchi 346 is also a straight clone. Where the L-15 differs significantly is that it is apparently supersonic - that puts it in the class of the MAKO and T-50 Golden Eagle (not the Russian superfighter BTW).

Aermacchi 346. An Italian copy of the Yak, not supersonic:


KAI T-50 (/A-50/F-50) Golden Eagle. A Korean supersonic trainer based largely on the F-16 (designed and marketed by Lockheed (/General Dynamics)):


EADS Mako. A German based project for a semi-stealth light fighter/supersonic trainer, yet to fly:


And finally....
GAIGC JL-9 (/FT-2000) Mountain Eagle. The main home rival to the L-15 program, the JL-9 is less sophisticated being based on the JJ-7/Mig-21 lineage. It can feature the nose radar, is supersonic and likely to be much cheaper.


[edit on 17-3-2006 by planeman]

That JL-9 looks mighty cool, like it's out of Macross or something. I didn't know the type, it has this "manga" asian look that makes it stand out. In a different style I also like the MIG AT which doesn't seem to be too successful with the VVS.

the main difference in the L-15 is how the engines are placed compared with the yak.

Originally posted by echoblade
That JL-9 looks mighty cool, like it's out of Macross or something. I didn't know the type, it has this "manga" asian look that makes it stand out. In a different style I also like the MIG AT which doesn't seem to be too successful with the VVS.

Which one in Macross?! The Flying Circus jet?!

Nice news... China has many planes already... Will see how well this copes in the future...

Originally posted by Daedalus3
Which one in Macross?! The Flying Circus jet?!

Possibly, it's the original curves it has, plus the huge stabilizers under its tail, it doesn't fit in our usual aviation design standards, it looks "exagerated".

Btw, has anyone heard any news about the Mako recently ? It seems to be pretty dead.

[edit on 19//3//06 by echoblade]

I was wondering that too echoblade, I did a google search for it only yesterday and found absolutely zip after 2002. Has it gone black? Unlikely as its only a trainer. Maybe they just think that if they keep quiet everyone will forget about it and they can dump it with a minimum of fuss? I wouldn't know why though. Its odd that there seems to be no news of progress, likely first flight or even cancellation.

It seems that it's pretty much disappeared, with the slow progress of the Eurotrainer program and the development of the M 346, there is no European interest for the Mako and export without this basic market is next to impossible. The fact that European countries are already having a hard time buying expensive combat aircraft probably doesn't help. Last I read France was to keep the Alphajet until 2018...

Honestly I don't know how serious this project was, I'd say for EADS it was a real project and they tried to sell it here and there but it seems to have never raised huge interest among air forces, so I guess they preferred not to fund it. I'd see no objection against buying the M 346 anyway rather than a more expensive Mako which would lower the budget for combat a/c.

Well it's still featured on the EADS website as a current project but news of progress has been somewhat lacking.

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