J-20. Via Chinese Internet.
For months there had been rumblings on Chinese Internet forums: rumors of photos quickly suppressed by censors. Word was, China’s first stealth fighter prototype, the Chengdu J-20, was nearing its inaugural flight. On Christmas Day, photos finally surfaced on-line — and stayed there. It was official: Beijing now possesses an apparently flyable prototype fifth-generation fighter, making it only the third country after Russia and the U.S. to join the stealth club.
The J-20 appears to share design characteristics with earlier stealth types. It has the same angled chin as the Lockheed Martin F-22 and F-35, plus those jets’ all-moving tailplanes. Its twin engines are probably Russian-made 117S models. Like the Russian T-50, it’s big: an estimated 70 feet, compared to 66 for the T-50, just over 60 for the F-22 and the F-35′s 50. “The bigger that the aircraft is, the more likely it is that it is a bomber as much as, if not more than, a fighter,” Ares‘ Bill Sweetman noted.
Is the J-20 intended as a production program? If so, how soon might it enter service? There’s no way to know for sure, but Sweetman stressed that the J-20 might not spend as long in development as, say, the F-22 and F-35, both of which required 15 years from demonstrator first flight to service-entry. “We don’t have a pattern for Chinese major programs,” Sweetman warned.
If it enters service, and enters service fast, the J-20 could help China flesh out its still largely outdated fleet of some 1,500 fighters, bringing Beijing closer to achieving air parity against its local coalition of rival countries: the U.S., Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea and India. Even with the J-20, China will be overall outnumbered and behind technologically — but much less so.
The J-20′s first flight should occur any day now.
J-20. Via Chinese Internet.
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[...] article originally appeared on War is Boring, December 29, 2010. Comments [0]EmailBuzz itDeliciousDigg [...]
http://deepbluehorizon.blogspot.com/2010/12/chinas-new-stealth-fighter-chengdu-j-20.html
Deep Blue Horizon has some interesting blogs on defense aviation technologies.
funny,,, looks exactly like the united states f22 raptor that they abandoned after a few years in service. maybe i see now why they let that program go. looks like maybe china got ahold of some blurptints and schematics somewhere.. looks way too much like the f22 raptor.
Most def some sinister shit goin on. Looks like the F22 however looks very long, almost like the old Mig25 Foxbait haha. Can’t be as agile as the F22…yep, given enough hp even a bathtub can fly. Looks like they used the Mig29′s chassis and went from there. Also, look @ the length from the rear gear to the tail…must be a bitch to take off without scraping. It’ll be primarily a bomber and a negotiating toy…I’d bet a case of guinness on it. A poor Man’s B-1
No doubt, China has first ever come into direct rivalry with the USA in question of air superiority excellence. This ultra modern war machine will out number Raptor-22 as it has been made examinig Raptor’s flaws.
Well there are such a large corruption in US in weapon purchasing program so not worth to pay taxes back home. We get technology in expensive cost compared to foreigners while our services personnel don’t get much pay. Imagine how corrupt it is, during beginning of afgan war and so on, we got large fleet of military but we still outsourcing the military equipment such as apache helicopter from Dynn Corp.
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白痴一群
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