WHAT HAPPENED?
J-15 pilot Zhang Chao was practicing a simulated landing, his jet’s control system suddenly malfunctioned on touchdown, causing the jet to pitch up quickly. 4.4 seconds later, Zhang ejected from the cockpit at an altitude that was not high enough above the ground for his parachute to function, and Zhang fell [to his death].”
The Chinese regime had no carrier-based fighter jets. Initially, it wanted to buy them from Russia but was not able to negotiate an acceptable price. It later got a Su-33 prototype, T-10K-7, from Ukraine, so it decided to make its own carrier-based fighter jet J-15 by imitating the Su-33 prototype. However, T-10K-7 has its inherent major flaws for a carrier-based jet, making it difficult for the J-15 to pass critical tests.
After Zhang’s death, he was praised as a national “martyr,” but actually he was a victim of the Chinese regime’s attempt to copy technology it had stolen.
No zero-zero?
Well, I guess they would have had to buy those, too.
Seems like they are making way too much of a landing accident.
They will fix the problems and move on.
They look to be a formidable ally or a deadly foe
Inherent major flaws? I haven’t seen any video of them landing on a carrier, or even on approach to a field. But we learned the hard way that angle of attack and pilot vision of the deck is important . If the J-15 has to pitch up too far on final, it may have pilot field of view issues, or low speed handling issues. With less capable aircraft yes you can perform carrier ops, but you’re operating with less margin in multiple areas, and that is going to impact ops tempo, pilot and aircraft longevity.
No 0-0 ejection system?
All anyone has to do is to review videos on the web from the carrier as they move the planes from the hanger to the deck and back. The plane is almost too long to go on the elevator, and only one at a time can be brought up.
Their whole movement is way too slow and they do not seem much interested in moving the planes any faster or operating any faster. The same for carrier operations such as loading and launching. Everything is too slow and they do not have the integral NCO corps with institutional knowledge to fix the problems.
All anyone has to do is to review videos on the web from the carrier as they move the planes from the hanger to the deck and back. The plane is almost too long to go on the elevator, and only one at a time can be brought up.
Their whole movement is way too slow and they do not seem much interested in moving the planes any faster or operating any faster. The same for carrier operations such as loading and launching. Everything is too slow and they do not have the integral NCO corps with institutional knowledge to fix the problems.