The realities of stealth design forced the fuselage of the J-20 to look extremely similar to the F-22.
The differences in the nose, or whether the canopy looks like it's raised in the F-22 compared to sitting flat on the J-20, or whether the vertical stabs look exactly like F-22 ones, are all superficial in their eyes. They just see wings and flight surfaces in similar areas at similar angles, put on a body that large resembles something they know, and that's it, it's a copy. And they probably think it's a cheap one too. To some of them, anything different in the J-20 is probably because they couldn't figure out exactly how it's supposed to be done.
I think it just stems from lack of familiarity. It's like how all navy ships, cars, or an entire people all sort of "look the same" at first glance. I know it took me a while before I could start to identify the differences in what ship is what, or who it belongs to, etc. It took even longer for me to understand what was the reasoning behind whatever change.
Well, before I agree with you, it really is only fair to point out that lots of Chinese aircraft are reproductions of Russian aircraft, let me also say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I believe that China made reproduction of the mig 15, we know that they built su-27, and look at the Chinese J11, J15, J16. So just to keep us all honest here, Lochmart bought several of the Yak vertical take off and landing aircraft as they were designing the F-35, they "paid for the tech", so if somebody says the F-35 is a copy of the Yak, I just say "SO?". The Chinese also built copies of the Colt 1911, So? Do the Chinese build Chinese Flankers, of course they do, they build great Flankers, SO? Now, the J-20 is a uniquely Chinese Aircraft, does the back half resemble the mig 1.42/1.44, maybe? does the front fuse look a lot like the Raptor,maybe? Does the J-20 look like anything that someone else is flying, absolutely not! The J-20 is a brand new airplane, it looks good, it flys good, every Chinese citizen should be proud! The PLAAF is proud of the J-20, they should be, it is a beautifull, well thought out airplane, read Dr. Songs paper, he is inspired by the Raptor, his objective is to build an aircraft that could go "head to head" with the Raptor, a "true fifth gen". The fact that we are discussing all these aircraft openly, on an open forum, in a rational polite friendly way tells me we are all more alike, than we are different! Freedom is scary for all of us, yes 60 minutes will publish a hit piece on you, just do the right thing, if what they say is true, fix it, it what they are saying is false, tell the truth!
---------- Post added at 09:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:10 AM ----------
You mean this guy? Lt. Col. Paul "Max" Moga (Major at that time)
Yes sir, he is the Sq Commander ot the 525th FS at Elmendorf AFB, he was the first Raptor demo pilot and worked up most of the Raptors, "air show moves". He caught quite a little grief from a coupla posters on the old "Air Show Buzz", because he didn't perform the "pugechev cobra", as the Russian boys do at airshows. He stated that while the Raptor was quite capable of doing a nice cobra, he was flying a tactical demonstration, and post stall manuevers like the Cobra were "losers" tactically. He also stated that the Russian fellows were "departing their aircraft", and while it looks and is awsome, he would not be departing the Raptor as it was unneccesarily risky at airshow.
---------- Post added at 09:46 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:33 AM ----------
Back to the J-20, as they seem to be doing quite a lot of tweaking, don't get discouraged as this is the hard work of bringing a prototype into production, it aint easy, and it aint cheap, and there will be troubles along the way! Thats why engineers make the big bucks. We are privvy to a lot of info on the J-20, which has led me to the deduction that initial flight testing went very well, as they progress into the low speed and high speed regimes, they will see how she flys in the real world, I think it looks good and don't anticipate any major planform changes.
