It looks like a hodge-podge of Russian parts bin stuff. Probably nothing stealthy about it at this point.
Well Obama was just in China dropping off more secrets so expect the improvements soon
It is getting to where they all look alike to me.
From a CNN article:
a senior MiG official stated “no, as far as I know they [the Chinese] completed this design themselves, and they seem to have done a good job on their own.”
The MiG official may be correct. An aircraft of this type designed with Russian assistance would probably perform better.
The FC-31’s flight routine shows that it “bleeds” too much energy — so when it enters into a turn it begins to lose altitude. Even during straight and level flight the pilot has to engage the engine’s afterburners in order to keep the aircraft from sinking to a lower altitude. These are defects in the aircraft’s aerodynamic design that a Russian design team would not have made.
READ: China lands first jet on aircraft carrier
Western aerospace analysts point out that the FC-31 flown at Zhuhai is a “clean” jet in that it is not armed, which means that an aircraft configured for a real mission and fitted with weapons would be even heavier and would perform even worse.
I'd think it was photoshopped, but they've mastered the art of copy and it's not unlike what the Chinese do with the Russian designs they build.
Perhaps they didn't have enough motor for a single, at least not yet, or maybe they prefer a twin engine and went with two, smaller but proven engines instead.
Either way, they've saved a bunch on engineering and caught up quickly. The electronics and software should be relatively easy.