J-31 first flight

It's a neat looking plane and a nice complement to the larger J-15 which can carry large missiles such as YJ-12.

www.thedrive.com...

a reply to: anzha
Reduced Stealth?

a reply to: Blackfinger

There's actually a published paper (in chinese) about the decision. It was to reduce drag. The designers claim a 10% reduction by the F-35 like change.

A translation of what was posted elsewhere:

By optimizing the position of the canopy and the shock wave compression/expansion flows of the aft fuselage and optimizing air inlet bleeding vector (need better translation), we can attain 10% increase of drag reduction without sacrificing total fuselage volume.

a reply to: anzha
That works too.Ive heard of Radar being to be able to pick up the insides of cockpits so smaller canopies are desirable.

a reply to: Blackfinger

The F-117 had to put a special coating on the canopy, because the pilots helmet reflected more than the airframe.

It is about as big as MiG-29K and much smaller than J-15.

Now there are two of them!





I go back and forth whether the below is real. probably not.

Size comparison. This is on the mockup carrier, not the real thing.

A nice shot. Officially, it seems, this is the J-35:

On Weibo. as a warning.

video.h5.weibo.cn...:4794411004133533/4794411064233786

The way the canopy opens is exactly the same as F-35.

a reply to: boomer135

the woodwork creeks


a day late and a buck shot i would say but still nice to have.

it will be interesting to see if they can keep tight production expectations and standards

with the US already flying our replacements it seems like serious case of someone playing catch up

a reply to: Herbert007

FYI, the J-35 is a naval bird. The USN doesn't have a lot of F-35Cs yet. The tail number of the bird above makes this the 3rd J-35. As for J-20s, the PLAAF 5th gen, they may have more than we have F-22s now.

with the US already flying our replacements it seems like serious case of someone playing catch up

I've heard the USAF has flown some demonstrators for their NGAD, but not heard the Navy has. In fact, the USN dithered for several years longer than the USAF did...they are quite behind the curve, in relative terms.

Can you give a citation for the USN NGAD having flown even as just a demonstrator?

Note: window ahead of cockpit.