J-15 carrier-borne fighter thread

Totoro

Major
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Actually it is possible that is ws10. Al31 when installed on flanker family has nozzles which protrude more past the edge of horizontal tail.
 

Blitzo

Lieutenant General
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It wouldnt be the first time that a J-15 is spotted with ws-10. But AFAIK, no such plane has landed in liaoning yet. I think that plan still doesnt enough trust with it.

I think J-15 prototype serial numbers 554 and 557 were equipped with WS-10s briefly before switching out to Al-31s.

If this is a serial production J-15 with WS-10s then it could most definitely be indicative of the navalized variant of WS-10 reaching the next stage of development -- after all, we are all expecting WS-10s to replace Al-31s as the J-15s powerplant in the near future, it is just a matter of when exactly.

If WS-10 really is powering new production J-15s, we should keep an eye out for any mass produced J-15s (preferably lined up on the tarmac somewhere) with nozzles able to be identified... and then later, we would expect them to land on Liaoning and conduct training from the carrier. However it will likely take a number of months until we get photos of it happening, if not a year, depending on how many WS-10 powered J-15s have been built, if any.
 

Blitzo

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Actually this image tells us - at least me - nearly nothing !

If You look at the end of the nozzle ... they are maybe a bit more open but WA-10-typical ... I don't think so.

Deino

View attachment 26205

Agreed, the picture is merely a possible tantalizing hint that it may be using WS-10, and far from any sort of confirmation.
And even if it is a new production J-15 using WS-10, it does not tell us how many have been built or how far away they are from starting trials on Liaoning.

Still, it would be useful for us to keep an eye out for it.
 
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