Shenyang FC-31 / J-31 Fighter Demonstrator
- Thread starter RedSky
- Start date
Nice catch Bub, thanks for getting us back on track here, and guys, this is the FC-31/J-31 thread, LOL!
It is already clarified by a on Chinese BBS cjdby to be a remote controlled model. Here is the magazine scan. You are right that real aircraft does it, but this picture is just too not real. A real jet aircraft would be so fast and the jet exhaust being so strong that the generated smoke being quickly dispersed by the jet blast and high speed air. In this photo however, the smoke is too thick at the tail to be real.
Isn't it odd that we continue to hear so little of the FC-31? anybody have any recent pictures of video of the second prototype flying??
Hyperwarp
Captain
If it had PLAAF or at least PLAN backing then we would have heard a lot. Unless there is a solid export customer I don't thing we will here much from the FC-31.
From what I understood from the interview with the FC-31 designer it is more of a concept platform to test new airplane design technologies. However from what I gathered from comments elsewhere there is a high likelihood that Shenyang *did* get funding from the PLAN to design a fighter but it is something larger than the FC-31 base design. Regardless of that we will get to see a new naval fighter design enter operations in a year or two I think.
Like I said here before I expect to see FC-31 v3 until May.
Like I said here before I expect to see FC-31 v3 until May.
Just some thoughts:
- SAC get state funding from State council via its parent AVIC is one thing (SOE investment and competence building), money from PLAN is another. PLAN money means a final product in the pipe line. This something larger if true seems to mean that PLAN has decided their future ship borne fighter (at least one competing design). I don't know how reliable this is, but anyway.
- I guess you did not mean entering operation in a year, but instead meant seeing something like J-20 2001 in a year. There is no way that something in the development today will enter operation in 2020, SAC is not any more competent to beat speed of CAC (not saying they are worse, just not super human), nor is SAC so much more secretive than anybody else in hiding.
- Can I assume that you have direct contact in SAC to make that expectation?
I do hope you are right. May is not far.
Nah. I am just a lurker. I do not have any inside contacts. These are just reasonable guesses based on available leaks.
Basically what people who are in the know say and what they do not say.
For example Sun Cong has given multiple interviews so we got an idea of what the FC-31 was initially funded for. It is basically like what you said.
However then you can add to that comments from people who supposedly have inside knowledge of Chengdu. A year ago they would just say that the contract was not made yet. That CAC was still in the running. Now they just simply shut up and make evasive comments. What that tells me is that it is quite likely that the naval contractor has been decided already. I think it is Shenyang. However it is likely not Sun Cong's FC-31 team either given his own public statements. At least in the short term. However they were apparently given the go ahead to continue their own work.
I think there are multiple parallel design efforts inside Shenyang proper. Or it could even be, horror, that the Chinese government decided to purchase the MiG-29K or something ridiculous like that. That would also fit the rumors. But it seems kind of unlikely.
Basically what people who are in the know say and what they do not say.
For example Sun Cong has given multiple interviews so we got an idea of what the FC-31 was initially funded for. It is basically like what you said.
However then you can add to that comments from people who supposedly have inside knowledge of Chengdu. A year ago they would just say that the contract was not made yet. That CAC was still in the running. Now they just simply shut up and make evasive comments. What that tells me is that it is quite likely that the naval contractor has been decided already. I think it is Shenyang. However it is likely not Sun Cong's FC-31 team either given his own public statements. At least in the short term. However they were apparently given the go ahead to continue their own work.
I think there are multiple parallel design efforts inside Shenyang proper. Or it could even be, horror, that the Chinese government decided to purchase the MiG-29K or something ridiculous like that. That would also fit the rumors. But it seems kind of unlikely.
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Brumby
Major
How does your reasonable guesses work to get to entering operations in 2 years?
You need to first build a navalised prototype. Are there leaks that there is one out there? If you have one, you then proceed with basic testing. You then progress to full flight envelope testing on land. You then need to conduct naval aviation testing like take off and landings on land. Provided you don't run into problems from these tests you then proceed to at sea testing. This is actually when the rubber meets the road where the problems get flushed out. The USN had theirs with the F-35C with at sea testing. I believe is a similar problem facing the J-15 currently.
It is a long and frequently winding road with naval aviation.