Posted on 03/10/2012 6:49:38 PM PST by U-238
New pictures of the China's J-20 Mighty Dragon stealth fighter have surfaced and are making their way across military blogs.
This newest round of photos show the J-20 in the skies somewhere over mainland China.
The prototype is said to be using the Saturn AL-31 turbofan engine developed by the Russian's for their Su-27 air superiority fighter.
Reuben Johnson at The Washington Times reports the Chinese may be as much as 10 years away from producing an original stealth engine to slip into the J-20.
In the meantime, they'll have to take comfort in the fact that while the F-22 Raptor may be more agile and made entirely in the U.S., the Dragon carries more fuel and weapons than Lockheed's fighter.
The J-20's development is also moving along much faster than anyone had expected. Back in 2009, Gen. He Weirong, deputy commander of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force said in a TV interview that the J-20 wouldn't be operational until 2017-2019. That estimate will likely be revised if work continues at the current pace.
Bill Sweetman at AviationWeek points out that for all its headway, no one is yet sure what the J-20 is for. He speculates that given the aircraft's size and weapons bays, it may be used to "threaten intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets and tankers, by using stealth and speed to defeat their escorts."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Good photos at the link
Considering all iPads and iPhones are being produced in Communist China and “can not be made in the USA”, why is anyone surprised how fast they are developing their stealth fighter?
We are idiots. Short sighted, foolish, idiots.
The only upside is that my grandkids may wind up speaking Mandarin instead of Arabic.
Ipads and Ipods haven’t been weaponized have they?
I’m afraid your analogy is a bit like saying we won WWII due to the transistor radio.
But....they’re designed in Cupertino .
lol
Who knows if they are stuffed with malware just waiting for a go code?
My analogy has to do with a technological and manufacturing advantage we have surrendered to our largest communist enemy.
Doesn’t it concern you a at least a little?
Brought to you by americans who think the world tunes into American Idol, and thinks the world wants to be like us... got news for ya... the world wants to burry us, and the sooner the better.
Agreed. And those who lean hard on the “superior quality” of US made products seem to have forgotten how “made in Japan” went from a joke to not so funny in 30 years.
Resting on your laurels isn’t a good long-term policy.
They've already learned how to hack in and take control of NASA, various power grids, traffic grids, sanitation systems, data systems, etc.
But don't worry. The Chicoms won't, nor will anyone else, be able to stop us from giving our Ms. Flukes their free birth control.
Thanks to obama and the progressives, unlike the Chinese, WE know what's really important!
We, on the other hand, have taught them all we know and got out of the business of producing.
We taught them how to be what we used to be and then we retired.
Heck, half of "us" wants to bury us!
My money says the Canards will fall off and the J-20 becomes a lawn dart!!
In aeronautics, canard (French for “duck”) is an airframe configuration of fixed-wing aircraft in which the forward surface is smaller than the rearward, the former being known as the “canard”, while the latter is the main wing. In contrast a conventional aircraft has a small horizontal stabilizer behind the main wing.
Thanks for the ping. That is a VERY agile air-superiority fighter. Look at the canards set well forward.
The fact that its a 25 year old design is not surprising at all. The F22's planning and design began in the early 80's. Lockheed won the contract to build the thing as far back as 1991. It also doesn't matter if they are completely equivalent in performance to our planes either as long as they build and fly more of them. Quantity has a quality all of it's own.
“Quantity has a quality all of it’s own.”
Exactly!
That’s why the treasoncrats killed the F-22 program at 187 aircraft, instead of buying enough for a 1 for 1 replacement of the elderly F-15 as well as enough to cover for attrition.
Unfortunately, in this instance the treasoncat was none other than Dubya.
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