Chinese stealth fighter makes first test flight

Yahoo ^ | Associated Press

[Allthatucantleavebehind]

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 as a chase plane.

The test flight comes on the second day of a visit to China by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and the normally secretive military made no attempt to hide it or remove photos and reports about the J-20 from the Internet.

The timing and hands-off approach is apparently intended to send the message that Beijing is responding to calls from the U.S. and others to be more transparent about its defense modernization and future intentions.

[Chode]

i believe my own eyes don't see any thrust vectoring capability, at all...

[spetznaz]

I do not doubt that it flew. It is just that I find you quite foolish saying it is better than the F-22 Raptor (along with the other tripe you said regarding the J-10 being a Rafale equivalent) when the plane has not reached a stage where it can even raise its landing gear! So save the bandwidth.