'China’s 1st stealth fighter is product of Xi Jinping'

Korea Times ^ | 01/12/11

[TigerLikesRooster]

01-12-2011 18:45

'China’s 1st stealth fighter is product of Xi Jinping'

China intentionally made public a test flight of the J-20, its first fifth-generation stealth fighter, through the media, Tuesday, in a strategy orchestrated by Vice President Xi Jinping, reports said Wednesday.

Andrei Chang, editor of the Canadian-based Kanwa Asian Defense Monthly magazine, said Tuesday that the J-20’s test flight was just like an episode of a television drama, and this was controlled by Vice President Xi, according to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post.

A senior U.S. defense official said President Hu Jintao and other top civilians apparently were unaware of the test flight, AFP reported Wednesday.

Chang said the drama reached a climax as the country’s first radar-evading combat aircraft made a successful debut flight, it said.

Earlier, newspapers in Hong Kong, quoting Chinese Internet media outlets, said that Xi observed runway tests, which took place at an airfield in the southwestern city of Cheungdu early this month.

Xi was elected to concurrently serve as vice chairman of the Central Military Commission during the fifth general meeting of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee in October last year. Xi is expected to take over as China’s leader in two years' time.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[Jeff Head]

Well, these engines are nothing more than a hot IR target for a AIM-9 up the backside.

Also, from the looks of the photos I have seen, there seems to be two prototypes, each with a different set of engines. Take a look at these two pictures for example. I believe they are testing their prottypes with two of their own indegenous engines, probably the same two they have on their J-11 and J-11B to see which works out best for the J-20:

[UCANSEE2]

Or ‘jinping’ !

[Wizdum]

The top photo looks like a mod until a vectored thrust system can be implemented.

The bottom looks like something just for horizontal testing.

Two very different engine layouts for sure. Maybe a variant for secondary waves?

[indthkr]

chicom bump for later........

[TigerLikesRooster]

Too bad. It may evade radar but is a bull’s eye for heat seekers.

[taildragger]

Hmm....

They are clever...Those Pods?

Are they revisiting the old Convair Afterbodies to reduce Drag? Is this a high drag area for them on the airframe? Interesting...

[taildragger]

Interesting Jeff.... Yes the “turkey feathers” are different, Note one looks like they opened up of take off as well as being of a different color.

[Little Ray]

The nozzles change configuration depending on the throttle setting.
What we’re not seeing here is thrust vectoring.

[Jeff Head]

Oh, definitely no thrust vectoring...but those are not just diferent configurations of the same nozzle, they look like completely different nozzles to me.

...and, based what we know of the two indegenous engines they have put on their own licensed built SU-27, the AL-31F on their J-11, and the newer improved version, the WS-10A on their J-11B, it look like they may be those engines.

[Little Ray]

Yep. I’m completely wrong.

Does this mean two different prototypes or are the engine swaps that easy?

Gotta be two different prototypes.

[Jeff Head]

That's what I think too. They have two prototypes and are going to be testing the different engines on them.

Prototype may even be too strong a word...maybe more like technology demonstrators.

[Little Ray]

Dunno. I think this is a prototype strike aircraft. There is definitely room for a weapons bay in that monster. Maybe they could cram a couple of anti-ship missiles into it?
Be a heck of a surprise for CVNBG.

[TalonDJ]

Yeah, different nozzle. The right hand one is clearly shorter.
I am betting there are a lot more commonalities ‘under the hood’ between it and their flavor of SU-30. That whole aft end looks derivative to me. On a clean sheet design it would make more sense to omit the lower vertical fins to clean up the RCS from the ground.

[TalonDJ]

Prototype may even be too strong a word...maybe more like technology demonstrators.

I am thinking it is largely a new wrapper on a SU-30 Airframe. If that is the case it might be one with engine swaps or they could have cranked out two just as fast. Tech demonstrator seems about right.

[Jeff Head]

Not an SU-30 airframe.

[TalonDJ]

Nope, definitely not. Wow that son of a gun is long. And those canards are heavily loaded. Does not seem to be derivative of anything I can think of.

[Zhang Fei]

A blast from the past:

[spetznaz]

Nope, definitely not. Wow that son of a gun is long. And those canards are heavily loaded. Does not seem to be derivative of anything I can think of.

No, not Sukhoi ...MiG. Specifically basically developed from the MiG-MFI (1.42/1.44) concept cancelled by the Russians a decade ago. Differences only in terms of intakes (MiG-MFI were slung below Typhoon style, while the J-20 has side-intakes reminiscent of those of the F-35) and better shaping around the cockpit. Otherwise it is just a tossed-around MiG-MFI design.

Drawing of the MiG-MFI in flight plus MiG-MFI parked below:

[TalonDJ]

The MiG is also shorter and the tail section, while similar is different enough to not use the same structure at all. The tails are more widely spaced. And as stretched as the J-20 is there can't be much else that is the same either. But the similarity is strong and I would not be surprised if they got their hands on some of the aerodynamics data from the MiG. That might have influenced things early on at a high level. I am with Jeff thinking this is a tech demonstrator. It will be interesting to see what they derive from it.