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On 11 January China's Chengdu J-20 had its maiden flight, sending a signal about the country's aerospace ambitions and possibly spurring fighter programmes among its neighbours. The 15min flight took place at midday at the Chengu Aircraft Design Institutes' aerodrome. The pilot took off and circled the airfield several times before landing. The tests show the purported fifth-generation aircraft is large, roughly the size of the General Dynamics F-111, and features a delta wing and forward canards. Otherwise, little is known about the aircraft, though analysts question whether it is truly stealthy.

China's now test-flying its new J-20 stealth fighter, coincidental with a visit to the nation by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. But exactly how does the Chinese aircraft stealth tech work? Unlike the U.S.'s vintage SR-71, world's first stealthy aircraft the F-117 and the hugely impressive B-2, all developed under the utmost secrecy, the J-20 is having a particularly open development process (even more unusual when you consider China's normal habitual secrecy).

Reporting from Beijing — China's military conducted the first flight test of an experimental stealth fighter Tuesday, apparently without informing the country's civilian leadership in advance and only hours before U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates met with the Chinese president to discuss ways of improving military ties. The test flight of the J-20 fighter seemed to represent a snub of Gates by China's military establishment during his three-day visit to Beijing and to deepen questions about how much control the country's civilian leadership exercises over the armed forces, which have often taken a harder line on improving relations with...

Defense: Dealing from a position of increasing strength against increasing U.S. weakness, China has rebuffed an overture to hold strategic nuclear talks. Why should they? As we disarm unilaterally, time is on their side. America doesn't have that big a stick anymore, and the Chinese know it. China and the United States are seemingly moving in different directions both economically and militarily. So when Defense Secretary Robert Gates went to Beijing on Monday speaking softly about the need for strategic talks, the Chinese told him in essence, "Thanks for coming." The world's oldest civilization is willing to wait patiently for...

The Chinese announced today that their new stealth fighter made first flight while Def. Secretary Gates was in country. Takes off at 3:06, touch and go at 4:30 in the following video. CHINESE J-20 STEALTH FIGHTER IN 1ST FLIGHT

BEIJING – China's prototype stealth fighter made its first-known test flight Tuesday, marking dramatic progress in the country's efforts to develop cutting-edge military technologies. The plane dubbed the J-20 flew for about 15 minutes over an airfield in the southwestern city of Chengdu where it was spotted carrying out runway tests last week, Kanwa Asian Defense magazine editor Andrei Chang said. Photos of the plane in flight and on the ground surrounded by men in civilian clothes and army overcoats were also posted on unofficial Chinese military websites. A J-10 fighter — China's last homegrown jet — flew behind it...

Defense: While America has stopped production of its stealth fighter, China prepares to challenge U.S. air supremacy in the Western Pacific with its own. China is on another Long March, one it hopes will lead to military supremacy over the U.S. at least in the Western Pacific. It is deploying a carrier-killing mobile missile, the Dong Feng 21D, and is expected to launch its first aircraft carrier this year, the refurbished ex-Soviet carrier Varyag. China is also conducting preflight tests on a fifth-generation stealth fighter expected to challenge the best the U.S. has to offer. Photographs reportedly showing China's J-20...

China is still years away from being able to field a stealth aircraft, despite the disclosure of images indicating that it appears to have a working prototype, Pentagon officials said on Wednesday. The images have been posted on a number of websites and were published on the front page of The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. The Pentagon said they appeared to show a Chinese J-20 stealth fighter prototype making a high-speed taxi test. The disclosure of the photographs comes just days before U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is due to travel to Beijing on Sunday, and analysts could only...

Experts doubt 'stealth' capability of Chinese fighters 2011/01/04 19:55:11 Taipei, Dec. 4 (CNA) Local military analysts expressed doubt Tuesday about the "stealth' capability of a Chinese stealth fighter that reportedly has been performing high-speed taxiing tests recently. Pictures of the prototype J-20 stealth fighter were posted on several websites after the U.S.-based Aviation Week reported that the aircraft had been carrying out taxiing tests at an airfield in Chengdu, western China, late last month. The debut of the J-20 was announced in November 2009 by General He Weirong, deputy commander of the People's Liberation Army Air Force, during an interview...

India and Russia on Tuesday finalised a contract for the biggest defence programme in the country's history — a $30-billion (Rs 1,35,000-crore) project involving the joint production of 200-250 fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA). The aircraft, being called the perspective multi-role fighter (PMF), will exploit the basic design of the Russian Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA prototype, with modifications thrown in to meet the Indian Air Force's "more stringent specifications". The 30-tonne aircraft will be a swing-role fighter with stealth features for increased survivability, advanced avionics, smart weapons, top-end mission computers and 360-degree situational awareness. What will put the co-produced fighter in...

Russia’s development of the PAK FA fifth-generation stealth fighter could challenge American air supremacy, especially if Russia sells the PAK FA to its usual buyers of military equipment. In the U.S., closure of the F-22 production line has severely limited America’s ability to respond to PAK FA proliferation by building more F-22s and potentially selling them to U.S. allies. The U.S. needs to revise its assessment of U.S. air superiority needs and then explore ways to modernize and strengthen the U.S. tactical fighter force.With America’s closure of the F-22 production line and the recent debut of Russia’s PAK FA fifth-generation...

The Chinese People's Liberation Army recently staged an intercept exercise targeting the U.S.' latest stealth fighter jet, the F-22 Raptor, Hong Kong's Apple Daily reported Thursday. Japanese media on Oct. 3 reported that the Japanese and U.S. militaries will carry out a joint exercise to practice recapturing the disputed Senkaku or Diaoyutai Islands in November, in case the Chinese capture them in a surprise attack. It said the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington and F-22 Raptors will take part in the exercise. On Oct. 8, five days after the report, a Chinese Air Force brigade in the Chengdu military...

The 5th generation F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter will serve as the centrepiece for 21st century global security while strengthening international political and industrial partnerships, a senior Lockheed Martin F-35 executive said Monday at the Farnborough Air Show. "As we continue to define what a next generation multirole fighter is and bring to the world a profound increase in capability over the best existing fighters, I’m most proud that we’re able to do it affordably—at about the price of fourth generation aircraft," said Tom Burbage, Lockheed Martin executive vice president and general manager of F-35 Program Integration. "The program continues...

Russia plans to offer its advanced fighter-jets at a cost far below those of its Western counterparts. Officials said Russia would offer fifth generation fighters for one-third of the cost of comparable Western aircraft. They said Russia was developing fighters that would be superior to current European and U.S. aircraft. "It will be a machine superior to our main competitor, the F-22, in maneuverability, armament and range," Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said. On June 17, Putin toured a Russian aerospace facility that was developing and testing a fighter-jet prototype, designed to have a shelf life of up to 35...

Boeing's sleek fighter-size Phantom Ray stealth jet will make its first flight by year's end. This unmanned airborne system (UAS) is designed for a variety of warfighter roles ranging from reconnaissance and surveillance to aerial refueling, electronic attack and hunter/killer missions. The 36-foot-long aircraft, which will serve as a test bed for advanced technologies, was rolled out May 10 at the Boeing Defense, Space & Security plant in St. Louis, Missouri. With its 614 mph (0.8 Mach) cruising speed, operating altitude of 40,000 feet and 50-foot wingspan, the 36,5000-pound Phantom Ray advances the state of the art for unmanned aircraft....

The flying debut of Russia’s answer to the F-22 Raptor isn’t wowing Air Force leaders. Dubbed the T-50 or PAK-FA, the fifth-generation stealth fighter jet made its maiden flight Jan. 29 — 47 minutes over eastern Russia — and has flown at least twice since then. The twin-engine jet will replace the MiG-29 Fulcrum and Su-27 Flanker, both fourth-generation front-line fighters. The first operational T-50s should be delivered in 2015, the same year the Air Force expects its first F-35 Lightning II. Also a fifth-generation fighter, the F-35 has a single supersonic engine and stealth capabilities. “I didn’t see anything...

Within a span of days, Russia's fifth generation fighter aircraft developed by Sukhoi Corporation under its highly secret PAK FA project Friday made its second successful flight in the country's far east. The flight carried out from the KNAAPO plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur lasted 57-minutes, ten minutes longer than its maiden flight on January 29 and the fighter was painted in the combat colours of the Russian air force, according to Interfax. This time also it was piloted by test-pilot Sergei Bogdan, who expressed satisfaction at the performance of the aircraft to be inducted by the Russian Air Force in 2015....

On 29 January 2010, the Sukhoi PAK-FA (Perspektivnyi Aviatsionnyi Kompleks Frontovoi Aviatsy, literally "Future Front line Aircraft System"), which could variously be described as a technology demonstrator, the first prototype of the future T-50 fighter, or an intermediate step between the two, took to the air for the first time from the freezing runway of Dzemgi Air Force Base (shared with the KnAAPO plant) at Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Russian Far East Siberia (see also http://www.defpro.com/daily/details/497/). A fundamental step has at last been accomplished in the development of the long-expected Russian response to the American F-22 RAPTOR air dominance fighter. Airframe...

On 29 January 2010, the Sukhoi PAK-FA (Perspektivnyi Aviatsionnyi Kompleks Frontovoi Aviatsy, literally "Future Front line Aircraft System"), which could variously be described as a technology demonstrator, the first prototype of the future T-50 fighter, or an intermediate step between the two, took to the air for the first time from the freezing runway of Dzemgi Air Force Base (shared with the KnAAPO plant) at Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Russian Far East Siberia (see also http://www.defpro.com/daily/details/497/). A fundamental step has at last been accomplished in the development of the long-expected Russian response to the American F-22 RAPTOR air dominance fighter. The...