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One Foggy Day In China (new stealth fighter spotted?)
Aviation Week ^ | 12/23/2010 | Bill Sweetman

Posted on 12/23/2010 8:24:07 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki

One Foggy Day In China

Posted by Bill Sweetman at 12/23/2010 8:30 AM CST

Is China about to give airpower hawks their best Christmas present ever?

The internetz are buzzing (start here and here) with a picture that allegedly shows China's next-generation Chengdu J-20 fighter - the first known Chinese stealth aircraft - undergoing high-speed taxi trials, with rumors of a first flight within weeks.

The picture appeared today on the very popular Chinese military fan web site Top81, apparently taken by a cell phone from a car. The bad news is that it makes 1950s shots of new MiGs and Sukhois look like Katsu Tokunaga material. Rumor has it that better shots have put in transient appearances on Chinese websites before being zapped by the censor.

China military specialist and DTI contributor Rick Fisher notes that "in China's military fan web culture, the rapid intervention of the censors is always a boost for the credibility of the poster" and adds that his sources are also predicting an early first flight.

"Such drip-by-drip revelations are apparently condoned or even encouraged by the PLA," Fisher adds. "One rarely hears any more of web posters going to 'drink tea', the Chinese euphemism for having your life upended by the military or party police."

Overall, Fisher notes, "the web leaks will continue, as this feeds directly into the Communist Party's massive and well-stoked program to promote militaristic nationalism."

Some people are speculating intensively about details such as diverterless inlets and all-moving tails, but as Fisher cautions, "like so much of the PLA, you just can't say for sure what it is until it's falling on your head."


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Japan; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: aerospace; china; f22; f23; j20; stealth; yf23

1 posted on 12/23/2010 8:24:10 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
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To: sukhoi-30mki


2 posted on 12/23/2010 8:27:58 AM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Visualize)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

Hold down the Ctrl Key and use you Scroll button on you mouse to enlarge.....................


3 posted on 12/23/2010 8:28:18 AM PST by Red Badger (Whenever these vermin call you an “idiot”, you can be sure that you are doing to something right.)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

gotta wonder how that stealth crash in serbia that clinton wouldn’t destroy ended up helping the chinese.


4 posted on 12/23/2010 8:28:32 AM PST by WoofDog123
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To: sukhoi-30mki
This is why Bubba Clinton gets a Christmas card from China every year. He sold a lot of USA’s military secrets to them.
5 posted on 12/23/2010 8:29:14 AM PST by baddog 219
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To: Red Badger

Wow, I didn’t know you could do that, too cool!

Merry Christmas!


6 posted on 12/23/2010 8:33:16 AM PST by Lx (Do you like it, do you like it. Scott? I call it Mr. and Mrs. Tennerman chili.)
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To: JoeProBono

This airplane has way, way too many external right angles for it to be considered a “stealthly” airplane. The intake for the engine alone would throw back a return so strong it would burn the radar operator’s eyes.


7 posted on 12/23/2010 8:38:17 AM PST by Thermalseeker (If I print money it's counterfeiting. If the Fed prints money it's quantitative easing?)
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To: Lx

Wow, I didn’t know you could do that, too cool!

Merry Christmas!

Better yet, no need to hold the Ctrl key. Just click your scroller wheel on your mouse and then you can zoom in and out when you scroll.


8 posted on 12/23/2010 8:42:01 AM PST by Cyclone59 (Don't blame me, I voted for the hot chick and the old guy!)
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To: baddog 219
This is why Bubba Clinton gets a Christmas card from China every year. He sold a lot of USA’s military secrets to them.

The most overwhelming source of their fighter tech is from copying the stuff they buy from the Russians. The second most important source is a prototype of the Israeli Lavi Fighter (containing a lot of F-16 technology) that the Israelis gave to the Chinese.

9 posted on 12/23/2010 8:55:05 AM PST by Strategerist
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To: sukhoi-30mki
Two possible layouts:


10 posted on 12/23/2010 8:56:07 AM PST by Yo-Yo (Is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

I don’t see anything./s


11 posted on 12/23/2010 8:56:25 AM PST by Dallas59 (President Robert Gibbs 2009-2013)
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To: Yo-Yo

So you’re saying that the Chinese have the plans for the YF-23?


12 posted on 12/23/2010 9:11:52 AM PST by Tallguy (Received a fine from the NFL for a helmet-to-helmet hit.)
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To: Tallguy
Have the Chinese been perusing back issues of Aviation Weekly and haunting hobby shops? Or did someone in the current regime sell it to them?

13 posted on 12/23/2010 9:31:26 AM PST by jmcenanly ( "We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him." -Samuel)
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To: Tallguy
So you’re saying that the Chinese have the plans for the YF-23?

Plans or a decent Revell model.


14 posted on 12/23/2010 10:20:31 AM PST by Yo-Yo (Is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: Thermalseeker; JoeProBono
This airplane has way, way too many external right angles for it to be considered a “stealthly” airplane. The intake for the engine alone would throw back a return so strong it would burn the radar operator’s eyes.

The picture posted on #2 is not the stealthy J-20/JXX ....that is the J-10.

15 posted on 12/23/2010 11:46:41 AM PST by spetznaz (Nuclear-tipped Ballistic Missiles: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol)
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To: Yo-Yo
Sheesh. It looks like they have the plans to the F-22.

Still, I'm not worried. The Chinese, for the most part, have not shown themselves adept at the design, development and successful deployment of military technology.

It's 2010 and they cannot keep their indigenous nuclear subs at sea.

We've had ours deployed and operational for over 50 years.

The Russian weapons are F A R superior to everything/anything the Chinese make and are still far behind us.

16 posted on 12/23/2010 11:47:04 AM PST by Mariner (USS Tarawa, VQ3, USS Benjamin Stoddert, NAVCAMS WestPac, 7th Fleet, Navcommsta Puget Sound)
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To: jmcenanly

On September 27, 1985, I was in Harold Fuchs Hobby Shop at The Burlington Mall looking at a model of the Stealth Fighter, which we denied existed.


17 posted on 12/23/2010 1:28:01 PM PST by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: Yo-Yo

I’ve seen this plane before, I think I know where too.

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2280981273/


18 posted on 12/23/2010 5:21:31 PM PST by Bringbackthedraft (The candidate they smear and ridicule the most is the one they fear the most.)
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