Chengdu next gen combat aircraft (?J-36) thread
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
Fake
There is no way for the dorsal intake to be visible.
The model plane‘s dorsal intake has the correct height but the position is further forward than the real thing.Here's a revised version of your English text, incorporating your feedback and aiming for a more natural and polished tone:
Some people believe this image is fake. Because there are several key design differences: it is not a double delta wing, and both the dorsal intake's position and the split drag rudders' shape don't align with the J-36 we've previously seen in Chengdu.
However, if we operate under the assumption that this image is genuine(like you mentioned, why would they fake an image in Xi'an)
Then we can draw some interesting conclusions:
- Wing Leading Edge: The aircraft in this image features a wing leading edge that appears to be a single, straight line, rather than a two-segment or "folded" design.
- Speculation: This might suggest that the designers have found alternative methods to compensate for low-speed maneuverability in a flying wing design, allowing them to unify the sweep angle. OR, it could indicate a stronger emphasis on optimizing for high-speed performance, with a willingness to accept some compromises at lower speeds. OR, they made a compromise between high speed and low speed.
- Dorsal Intake: The dorsal air intake on this aircraft appears to be positioned much higher than that on the J-36 observed in Chengdu.
- Speculation: This higher placement could be an attempt to improve the intake's efficiency and performance, particularly at higher angles of attack.
Feel free to correct me.
And I missed one thing:
The leading edge of the inner wing section (or the first "fold line") has a reduced sweep angle can explain the forward-shifted dorsal air intake. This smaller sweep, at high angles of attack, could lead to insufficient airflow caused by vortex shedding, hence the necessity to move the dorsal intake forward, see the pic.
Based on this analysis, it appears sacrifices might have been made in both high-speed and low-speed performance. What would be the motivation for such a compromise? Perhaps the extreme stealth offered by a diamond-shaped wing? (This last point would only hold true if the wing shape is deemed to impact stealth more significantly than the forward-shifted dorsal intake.)
The leading edge of the inner wing section (or the first "fold line") has a reduced sweep angle can explain the forward-shifted dorsal air intake. This smaller sweep, at high angles of attack, could lead to insufficient airflow caused by vortex shedding, hence the necessity to move the dorsal intake forward, see the pic.
Based on this analysis, it appears sacrifices might have been made in both high-speed and low-speed performance. What would be the motivation for such a compromise? Perhaps the extreme stealth offered by a diamond-shaped wing? (This last point would only hold true if the wing shape is deemed to impact stealth more significantly than the forward-shifted dorsal intake.)
I think they brought it on themselves with their response. When told their response was strange and not understandable, they decided to double down and start saying the forum was of poor quality and people (not him) had poor English and can't read professional journals.
This was already apparent from the earlier claims of the picture being from a Taiwanese disinformation campaign without evidence. He followed up by essentially calling anyone who asked for evidence to this extraordinary claim an ignorant foreigner.
Nobody likes being condescended to, especially by someone displaying such rude and arrogant behavior. The pushback was entirely predictable.
Today, I went to find the exact location of that highway toll booth relative to the airfield, and made an interesting discovery - the road running along the south side of the CAC airfield is actually part of G318, arguable the most famous 国道. It starts at People's Square in Shanghai and runs to the Nepal border, and includes 川藏路--the Chengdu to Lhasa portion.
It really is kind of awesome that China is building and test flying its most advanced, secret fighter from an airfield immediately adjacent to one of the most romanticized routes in the country. It's the equivalent of Groom Lake being built next to Route 66 in the east LA suburbs.
Many of the pictures here also get posted onto twitter quite quickly, and some of the TWZ writers do follow users there
Chinese aviation photographers really hate how Western defense journos appropriate their photos (they hate it even when Deino does it). I think they will put more watermarks on them to prevent “unauthorized use”.
Because the first flight was 6 months ago? Are you really suggesting there is any chance at all that all of the systems are complete in 6 months?
Who knows, I think we can just chalk this one up to some random guy messing around with photoshop.