Is This China’s First Stealth Fighter? (Picture)

Update from Chengdu as of 1230 local time from Chinese aircraft enthusiasts. Two VIP Boeing 737s have now landed at Chengdu. Cameras have been set up and manned. The J-20 has completed a high-speed taxi. Security is very tight and is now blocking roads and stopping traffic. A J-10 chase aircraft with a possible camera pod has now flown twice on possible weather sorties.

1243 local - J-20 engine running on runway.

TJ

J-20 is now flying with J-10 as chase aircraft as of 1250 local.

TJ

As of 1300 local the J-20 has completed two low passes over the airfield with J-10 as chase.

TJ

J-20 has landed as of 1308 local.

TJ

First images at the following.

forum.keypublishing.com...

forum.keypublishing.com...

TJ

just as i thought a Su37 upgrade, still a war bird not to be messed with do we have any thing that could mach this, could the F22???? see Su 37 for what i am talking about.

Originally posted by bekod
just as i thought a Su37 upgrade, still a war bird not to be messed with do we have any thing that could mach this, could the F22???? see Su 37 for what i am talking about.

...This has nothing to do with the SU-37 Terminator. Perhaps you mean S-37, but it is still a very different platform. Like I said before on ATS, it closely resembles the MiG 1.44 with some F-35 elements.

First flight video

reply to post by toreishi


Good job. I had read about it but not the video.

Well, looks interesting.

What a dam good thread this turned out to be. Good work all.

Flag it to draw attention to it and you awesome postings.

reply to post by tommyjo


~20 min flight. Very similar to the J-10.

So the conspiracy theory was shot down..
I still think it has flown prior to this. Now off to analyze the flight in detail

No problem, Daedalus.

Probably my eyes, but I can't see a weapons bay? The rumoured number 2002 might field it?

Apologies for posting one of the initial links. The first image in that post is an F-35.

forum.keypublishing.com...

Some better quality images of the J-20.

i.imgur.com...

i.imgur.com...

i.imgur.com...

i.imgur.com...

i.imgur.com...

TJ

Keep the F-22 production line open!!
And don't induct them into the USAF..sell the cancelled airframes to Japan, South Korea and perhaps a few to Oz. That'll do it.

Yea.. why no weapon bay(s). How are we supposed to figure out what can fit in there and thereby speculate on operational roles? Seems like the engines take up most of the space?

Has there ever been a production fighter with full-moving vertical tail canards before?

The way I see it is that better canard technology can supplement the maneuverability of thrust vectoring nozzles, while allowing the engines to focus on power and speed.

The great weapons bay debate has started on some of the aviation enthusiast forums! Some people can see lines and other don't. No doubt higher resolution images will appear in the future? It is very difficult to discern with the dark coloured airframe?

Some image links from those seeing the weapons bays!

i36.servimg.com...

i36.servimg.com...

i36.servimg.com...

TJ

reply to post by Dimitri Dzengalshlevi

yes there was only one made not in production run, Su 37 it had the forward canards, a twin vert as you can see the Su37 Terminator Su 47 and the J20 all share some of the same, air frame design, throw in some F22 F117 wing and slant twin tails with the shark teeth wheel Bayes, now if it had forward swept wings then it would be Su47-S32- and lastly
S37"Berkut", i like how they can give one plane so many design numbers.

Originally posted by bekod
reply to post by Dimitri Dzengalshlevi

 

yes there was only one made not in production run, Su 37 it had the forward canards, a twin vert as you can see the Su37 Terminator Su 47 and the J20 all share some of the same, air frame design, throw in some F22 F117 wing and slant twin tails with the shark teeth wheel Bayes, now if it had forward swept wings then it would be Su47-S32- and lastly
S37"Berkut", i like how they can give one plane so many design numbers.

I know what all those planes are, and I said vertical tail canards, as in the most obvious feature in this photo:



I don't see any Su-37 in this at all. There are also lots of planes in production with canards, but I'm not talking about horizontal canards here.

J-20


MiG 1.44


MiG 1.42 (better design than the MiG 1.44)


Look familiar? I once read some reports before about how Mikoyan turned towards Chinese defense interests after they lost out to Sukhoi with the PAKFA model. I wish I could find this article again...

flew around the base for 15 mins while Robert Gates was visiting.

reply to post by Atlantien


Was he at the base?

In any case, I wonder whether that coincidence of it's flight with his visit may have given the USA military/security outfit an opportunity to witness how stealthy it was to some extent?

Or was he actually there while the Chinese top brass were observing feedback on that issue?

reply to post by Dimitri Dzengalshlevi



there could be an argument there for a family resemblance between the Mig and the J-20 for sure, how deep it goes is anyones guess

although the J-20 does appear to have a relatively small wing area

she's just a big missile slinging platform imo, 21st century foxbat

Two inaccuracies i want to mention, then ill leave you all to it again.

Bekod, there is no sukhoi in this airframe at all from what i can see, but i would be interested if you can show anything other than a vague similarity. I see many influences in this design but the S-37 is not one of em.

Dmitri, if its mounted at the tail, it cannot be a canard. Simple as. It is a contradiction in terms, like saying the glass steel or the dead survivor canards are mounted at the front, this is what makes them canards. what you are calling a canard tail is actually a canted tail, entirely different word.