New Photos of China's Stealth Fighters Have Emerged

New photographs of China's acknowledged stealth fighters have emerged. The J-20 looks interesting for all the details it shows off. Rogoway did a writeup but I wanted to put the pix here as well as see what the locals think. And no stupid "they stole it! they stole it!" That doesn't tell us what the capabilities and short comings are. It just shows you are not using more than a few neurons to regurgitate prepackaged commentary.

J-20:







The cleanness of the construction and assembly should be pretty apparent. As noted in the article, the composites look more F-22 era than F-35. In either case, the J-20 does look to be far, far cleaner than the SU-57. What's got me is whether or not the yellow is pre RAM installation or just pre paint. Hmmm.

FC-31:



The Gyrfalcon has also made progress with the second prototype flying. Its different from the first. It will be interesting to see if the PLAAF really does settle on using it as the replacement for the J-15.

Again, even though this is not as good a pic, the construction looks rather clean and still in its daffy down dillies.

Thoughts, folks?

a reply to: anzha

I don't like the colour, does it come in Blue?

Looks nice.. Looking at it makes me wonder how much of that design was influenced by someone else's design knowing in advance how things in China are "copied"... Still impressive though...

a reply to: anzha

Those are some pretty birds I must say. Quick question, those engines do appear to have as much thrust vectoring as our F-22 or F-35. I am by far no expert so is it possible that they do have as much?

a reply to: Allaroundyou

The F-22 uses 2D thrust vectoring. If the J-20 uses 3D, it'll actually have more flexibility than the F-22.

a reply to: Allaroundyou

Neither seems to have much in the way of thrust vectoring. The 2d vectoring like the F-22 probably won't show up in another fighter, but 3d might. The J-20 is still waiting on the better engine and it could, but IDK if it will, use 3d thrust vectoring.

I'd doubt it though. The J-20 is far more of an cross between a F-111 and a MiG-31 than an F-22.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Does it use 3d? TIL...

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Allaroundyou

The F-22 uses 2D thrust vectoring. If the J-20 uses 3D, it'll actually have more flexibility than the F-22.

I was just reading up on the 2D and 3D thrust vectoring and am slightly confused. Can a single engine craft actually have 2D vectoring? From what I was reading you need at least two engine to have 2D or 3D. And if that is true does that mean some of our F-35’s are at a disadvantage?

a reply to: anzha

I've heard that they are either planning it, or have it, but I haven't seen it confirmed, so it's another of those clear as mud things.

a reply to: Allaroundyou

up and down only. // or \. 3d goes around in a circle. The F-22 design dates from before 3d was really a thing,the X-31 was working on it in the West, but...

OTOH, I really don't think its going to matter too much with the 6th gen: dogfighting is toast as soon as you slap a laser on an aircraft.

a reply to: Allaroundyou

Yes, it can. They put it on an F-16 testbed years ago. The F-35 doesn't use it though. The closest to thrust vectoring is the B model when they rotate the engine.

a reply to: anzha

The dragon on the nose and tail gives it an authentic look. Scaaaary!

Ah, the days when the X-29 and the X-31 were going to be the future of fighters...then came stealth.

well, sorta, but that's how I heard it a number of times to my amusement.

How does the US military even manufacture anything that doesn't have all made in China parts these days anyway? I can't even buy underwear that wasn't made in some dumpwater communist country.

That is one beautifully-designed aircraft.

If those pics are real and it has actuators on the front canards, holy crap. It's odd because the air-frame is so long yet they put these actuating canards on the front. The radome is well-designed too, with the paneling showing obvious modern stealth fittings.

The titanium over the engines looks surprisingly round, however. That's the only area I'm a little disappointment in, as the rest of the jet uses an angular approach to stealth. But if it meets their criteria then I guess it doesn't matter.

The F-16 test platform with semi-3d thrust vectoring used paddles, which are not as efficient as a true multi-vector nozzle design, but I see no reason why they couldn't add paddles to this if they wanted. The turkey feathers on the nozzles pretty much prove there is no 3d nozzle vectoring going on, as those feathers are designed to contract and expand only. Again, from the pic this is what I'm seeing.

The inlets are masked again with a round half-cylinder shape, something I missed in the first glances, but I'm not sure if that's part of stealth design approach or if it's to make room for avionics. Probably the former. They don't look movable so they must have ramps or some other method further down the tube to deal with excess intake. They probably are perforating the intake walls as well, to clean up the airflow to the first blades.

It's a beautiful aircraft and I have to say that I'm extremely impressed by it.

If I had to think of a jet that it reminds me of I'd say a Foxbat.

It's a damned box with wings and they call it stealth?

lol

What advantages/disadvantages does the forward canard/rear wing have over the conventional forward wing/tail configuration? Kinda looks like they got the blueprints accidentally mixed up when they where doing the "design" work and no one was game enough to tell the party bosses that its actually backwards lol.

a reply to: projectvxn

Frontal aspect, with the canards leveled, it's probably close to an early run F-117 or a little worse.

a reply to: Osirisvset

Canards allow you to push the maneuverability much harder, without stalling the aircraft. I once read something that said that with canards, you CAN'T stall.

originally posted by: Allaroundyou

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Allaroundyou

The F-22 uses 2D thrust vectoring. If the J-20 uses 3D, it'll actually have more flexibility than the F-22.

I was just reading up on the 2D and 3D thrust vectoring and am slightly confused. Can a single engine craft actually have 2D vectoring? From what I was reading you need at least two engine to have 2D or 3D. And if that is true does that mean some of our F-35’s are at a disadvantage?

Yeah it’s a bit of a cheeky thing you could technically say all multi engine platforms can be thrust vectored but that’s just dumb throttle control to help with turn authority think like a twin engine ship (the water kind) using varying engine speeds on each screw to turn tighter, no different. Thrust vectoring doesn’t care whether there’s one engine or eight if it’s got actuators it’s thrust vectored.