**PICS** China's J-20 stealth fighter makes second test flight

Steyr

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2011/04/20/355801/pictures-chinas-j-20-stealth-fighter-makes-second-test.html


Aircraft
DATE:20/04/11
SOURCE:Flight International

China's J-20 stealth fighter makes second test flight
By Craig Hoyle


China's Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter is believed to have made its second test flight, with new images showing the aircraft being prepared for the sortie on 17 April.

Performed from Chengdu airfield in Sichuan province just over three months after the J-20's surprise flight debut on 11 January, the latest milestone will bring fresh attention on Beijing's drive to field a fifth-generation counterpart to designs including the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor.

In these images, aircraft 2001 is shown undergoing pre-flight checks involving a team of engineers from state-owned AVIC.

Both images © Sipa Press/Rex Features




The J-20's emergence has prompted several other nations to step up their air force modernisation activities. Japan earlier this month issued a request for proposals in a contest to replace its oldest McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantoms, despite having to recover from the effects of a devastating earthquake and tsunami. Candidates for its F-X fighter requirement include the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Eurofighter Typhoon and the Lockheed F-35.

Taiwan also has stepped up its efforts to get the US government to approve its long-stalled request for an additional batch of 66 Lockheed F-16C/D fighters.

Pyr0

Is it just me or does that fighter look really, really big?

Raging_Ninja

Pyr0 wrote: »

Is it just me or does that fighter look really, really big?

I think it's roughly the same size as the F-22, though I could be wrong:



According to a google, the F-22 is 62 feet long and 44 feet wide.

keithc83

It does look similar in size to the F-22 imo. If you compare the two pictures there are a few similarities. Of course there are some differences but the J-20 looks to be proportionate to that F-22 from what i can see.

savagecabbages

Crying out for a bad joke about Chinese people being small and making the plane look big:pac::pac::pac:

Anyhew,
how many are Beijing planning on making? Big numbers may be worrying for other nations in the air power game, regardless of it conceivably being inferior to other 5th gen fighters...

johngalway

From the first photo which is side on, my initial thoughts were that's bloody huge.

Steyr

She is just slightly shy of the length of 2 F22's one behind the other, The J-20 is massive.

Her wings droop a fair bit too, a very weird looking Aircraft, she also looks around 1.5times the size of an F22.

savagecabbages

It certainly is big, maybe its not being considered as an absolute air superiority fighter like the f-22, and are those external ordnance pylons or wing fences, 2 on each wing. In either case they are not something I'd expect to see on a stealthy design...

Morlar

This is a good sized picture of it, if you look at the numbers on it the picture appears reversed though :

http://www.asianweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/china-J-20-stealth-fighter-first-flight-1444.jpg

This one may be useful also :
http://www.aviapic.ch/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/s27j20t50f22.jpg

Donny5

Steyr wrote: »

She is just slightly shy of the length of 2 F22's one behind the other, The J-20 is massive.

Her wings droop a fair bit too, a very weird looking Aircraft, she also looks around 1.5times the size of an F22.

Not that you're often wrong, but are you sure about that? The USAF says the Lockheed bird is 18.9m long, and Wikipedia says the Chinese offering is 19m. Wikipedia isn't always reliable, though. I can't read Mandarin, so I can't check the reference for the length.

keithc83

Steyr wrote: »

She is just slightly shy of the length of 2 F22's one behind the other, The J-20 is massive.

Her wings droop a fair bit too, a very weird looking Aircraft, she also looks around 1.5times the size of an F22.

It definitely looks slightly longer and with what Donny5 was saying that is certainly the case among other observers. But as for it being 1.5 times the length of a F-22 i am saying its not. I mean even if you look at the photos and carefully analyse them it is no way that long compared to the F-22. Some people in the know are saying its comparable in length to an F-111. So that would be no more than 23m.

Steyr

savagecabbages wrote: »

are those external ordnance pylons or wing fences, 2 on each wing. In either case they are not something I'd expect to see on a stealthy design...

Those are actually what look like the part that the wing that the flaps hydraulics would fit into as they dont look rigid enough to be pylons or wing fences and have an aerodynamic flush design to them, Wing fences are normally mor visible on the top of a fighter Aircraft.

This is what I suspect they are more to be:

Steyr

Interesting Images:





But the J-20 definately looks more bigger

Steyr

@savagecabbages Got it they are the areas where the hydraulics to extend/retract flaps are, I believe I was right!

savagecabbages

Yeah that makes sense now, just in the second picture posted in the thread, they looked like they ran the length of the wing, rather than just the rear of it... I shoulda looked into that before asking!

back to one of my earlier questions, anyone have any idea of numbers regards the J-20? Is it destined to replace something in the PLAAF inventory, or is there a new niche for it to fit into?

Overheal

Steyr wrote: »

@savagecabbages Got it they are the areas where the hydraulics to extend/retract flaps are, I believe I was right!

doesnt strike you as a stealth profile does it?

Steyr

Overheal wrote: »

doesnt strike you as a stealth profile does it?

Not at all, more like a poor mans version.

keithc83

Steyr wrote: »

Not at all, more like a poor mans version.

Well it is Made in China. lol

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

Donny5

Veles wrote: »

How does the J-20 compare against the F22,F-35,Eurofighter,SU-47 etc?

The short answer is that no-one, not even the Chinese, knows. It's still very early in testing, but some people are convinced it will be a contender. I'll wait until it's fielded before making any judgements.

OS119

Veles wrote: »

How does the J-20 compare against the F22,F-35,Eurofighter,SU-47 etc?

all anyone can realisticly say is that 'it can take off'.

nobody knows about the quality of its avionics, nobody knows quite how well the 'stealth' aspects of its construction work, no one knows how many the Chinese will be able to put into service, and how effective they will be a creating an integrated Air Force with the skills, doctrine and equipment to fight, rather than just creating lots of planes that sit in a line but don't actually achieve much.

its possible that its purely an SU-27 that a metal work class has played with and then dipped in black paint....

hmmm

Overheal wrote: »

doesnt strike you as a stealth profile does it?

Dirty big exhaust nozzles for one are going to light up the plane.

BlaasForRafa

hmmm wrote: »

Dirty big exhaust nozzles for one are going to light up the plane.

Those canards will increase the profile as well.

Just looking through a recent issue of combat fighter magazine which speculates that one J20 uses Russian-built Saturn 117S turbofans ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_AL-31 ) while the other uses chinese WS-10 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenyang_WS-10 ) engines. The chinese have had problems with china produced engines in the past so its no surprise that they have gone with russian engines on one of the prototypes. It also makes sense as it used in the J10 fighter....but its not what one could call a drastic step forward is it?