Update from Chengdu as of 1230 local time from Chinese aircraft enthusiasts. Two VIP Boeing 737s have now landed at Chengdu. Cameras have been set up and manned. The J-20 has completed a high-speed taxi. Security is very tight and is now blocking roads and stopping traffic. A J-10 chase aircraft with a possible camera pod has now flown twice on possible weather sorties.

1243 local - J-20 engine running on runway.

J-20 is now flying with J-10 as chase aircraft as of 1250 local.

TJ

1308 local - J-20 has landed.

Images at following.

Key Publishing Ltd Aviation Forums - View Single Post - J-20 Black Eagle - Part 3

TJ

Do Rosetta stone do Mandarin? :ooh:

First flight of Chinese stealth fighter
 

It's made it's first 15min test flight.




Direct link
YouTube - China's Stealth Jet J-20 "2001-02" First Flight Video (HD)?20????????

Some links to better quality images. Probably my eyes, but I can't see a weapons bay? Possibly it will be fielded on the rumoured 2002 airframe?

http://i.imgur.com/xpeA9.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/dnf9h.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/TSHDc.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/w8Ay5.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/DI6Ue.jpg

TJ

Reminds me more of the F-22's competitor in the run-off, the Lockheed YF-23, IIRC

Interesting write-up here of the J-20...

Not so hidden dragon - China's J-20 assessed | Aerospace Insight | The Royal Aeronautical Society

Will we see two affordable stealth fighters battling it out on the world market in the future?

And just to add to the other news rolling out of China whilst their PM is in the USA, just to rub it in.....

China Restores Soviet Aircraft Carrier

However, running threads with regular photo updates (including discussions identifying what changes are being made and which systems were being installed) have been all over the warship discussion boards across the net for years... like this one: PLAN News, Photos and Speculation #3 - Key Publishing Ltd Aviation Forums

And this one: PLAN Carrier Updates. - Key Publishing Ltd Aviation Forums

Elsewhere on the net there is discussion of those photos... some have been analyzed for "tampering", and it seems that details like the edges of the control surfaces where they meet the wings, and sections of the fuselage, have been "smoothed" to eliminate detail... suggesting that those photos were deliberately altered to hide such things as the location/size/shape of weapons bays, etc.

I was looking for the latest on the Chinese carrier situation and found this excellent link

THE RISING SEA DRAGON IN ASIA VARYAG TRANSFORMATION

Re: opening post.
 

Not as potentially amusing as this mind.

BBC News - China TV 'substitutes Top Gun for air force footage'