Comparison with J-10. It would appear that the J-20 is around the length of an Su-27?

http://www.centurychina.com/plaboard...1e0cdae342.jpg

TJ

There's some cockpit photos here: Welcome to China Defense.com

Congratulations PRC!

It looks awesome, even if its full capabilities may not be understood yet.

A well managed economy affords the developments of sexy equipment and this is a lesson to our politicians and bean-counters.

Best,

SSS

Funny innit. When 'they' build a new 'plane its going to be ace and cause all sorts of mither but if we build a new 'plane the radar won't work the thing hasn't enough fuel, made of the wrong materials by cheap sub contractors, missiles fly backwards, bombs aren't smart, can't carry enough of anything too many crew, can't land on a carrier, too heavy, lacks commonality, can't communicate, made of peas, underpowered, not enough cup holders, smells of wee....

LT, I wouldn't be too worried, half the kids christmas presents have broken already, and they were made in China. :E
On the flipside, at least they have a large manufacturing base and economy of scale, so they are able to do this sort of thing. I doubt we'd be able to produce anything more than a UCAV (or whatever they are called this month) in the future. Looks a little like the old Mig below mated with an F-23.
http://www.strangemilitary.com/image...ent/170133.jpg

Ares: Every Day, It's a-Getting Closer

http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver...5de5a.Full.jpg

The most recent imagery from Chengdu shows further progress toward first flight, with the nosewheel off the ground. At the same time, Chinese defense bloggers have pulled up an image of an experimental simulator cockpit that emerged a couple of years ago:

http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver...5bf4.Large.jpg

The forward view of the aircraft on the left-hand display is much too like the J-20 to be the product of coincidence.

Other Chinese enthusiasts have been playing with CGI. It is hard to vouch for their accuracy, but it's visually impressive:

http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver...9e09.Large.jpg

Finally, Air Power Australia has released an updated assessment of the J-20, with some interesting thoughts on timing, numbers and roles and missions, and Feng at Information Dissemination has some good observations.

What? Air Power Australia thinks the J-20 is a ripper and that the F-35 should be cancelled??? :eek:

Holy crap, who could've predicted that? May as well start learning Mandarin now! :suspect:

Dui, hen hao!

Wild-@ssed guesses, pure imaginings, and desperate exaggerations designed to support their "the RAAF must buy F-22 only & completely rebuild the F-111" agenda.

Sounds like a plan. We could have TSR2's:ok::ok::ok::ok::ok:

JF said;
"What you can assess from such a picture tends to depend on your education, training, experience, knowledge of various aircraft design features "

Come on John, don't leave us hanging...
Care to share your impression?

Either landing or high speed taxi with chute deployment at Chengdu?



http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx11/VVbear/xcx.jpg

TJ

Hey!

That's my mobile 'phone ring tone!

Smoketoomuch
 

I was merely making the general case following the quote above.

Not suggesting that I had any such background.

In actual fact there have been several links to analysis that I find no reason to argue with.

Something that Anatoly Kvotchur said to me one day was "the bigger the aircraft the easier it is to meet the spec" Wise words but they do ignore visual signature and cost.

As to

I would have thought that a careful read of the introduction to the document referred to makes it very clear it is none of those things as it is full of very sensible caveats.

Article from TIME: "You Provide The Pictures, I'll Provide The War" -... - StumbleUpon

TJ

Buying a few more pounds or cubic feet of space is no bad thing on a stealth platform. Visuals aside, observables are not related to size (sometimes bigger is better) and you can't follow the F-16-like growth path of adding bigger drop tanks, extra spines and conformals. Also, a bit of extra surface area for LO comms and EW antennas can come in handy.

Agree on APA. They are not perfect, but for some reason have acquired a flock of detractors, some of them complete loonies.

The flight today at Chengdu has been cancelled, according to the Chinese forums. VIPs were noted getting a guided tour of the aircraft. The airspace was cleared and the nearby international airport was closed down for the period.

http://oi51.tinypic.com/10z0mt1.jpg

According to the Chinese forums many spectators were moved on from the best viewing spots. People were even up the trees!

http://oi55.tinypic.com/34nscpe.jpg

Looking at the images it is clear that the weather got in the way!

New video of J-20 being towed. Taken from eastern side of Chengdu.



TJ

Yes, Carlo Kopp has had a field day with this one and has taken it as another opportunity to decry the F-35/F-18F combo in favour of the unavailable F-22. He knows his stuff far better than I do, but I don't know if anyone is in a position to make the claims he does based purely on the poor quality pictures available and without access to information on the true capabilities of the F-22/F-35/T-50/J20 (that is understandably kept well-guarded and the latter are only prototypes!), and if so they could be saving aerospace companies a lot of money by drafting advanced stealth designs without the need for all that testing and whatnot ;):

He then goes on to say how the F-35 hasn't got a prayer against this jet in an engagement. F-35 capability controversies aside, it seems like force multipliers should have a significant impact on any hypothetical matchup. I think he tends to be a bit over zealous.