China Flanker Thread II

[vesicles]

I've been woken up by CF-18s before and it's a lot more effective than a Samsung phone alarm clock.

I think the military is allowed to fly fighters in civilian areas given an emergency.

When I lived in College Station, we've had F-16's and F-18's flying over us multiple times. And I'm not talking about those fly-by's before football games. Just weekdays during work hours when I walked on A&M campus, all of a sudden F-16's or F-18's would fly overhead in formation.

 

[xiabonan]

Nothing beats living in Singapore.....

THE WHOLE ISLAND IS JUST THAT DAMN SMALL....

During my secondary school years I used to stay near school, and there's an army base nearby, where AH64s and CH47s flew almost EVERYDAY.

Sometimes they fly so low that I could almost see the details on the blades....

Then I used to travel to my flute teacher's home every weekend, and there's an air force base nearby...and I could hear and see F15SGs taking off and landing almost every week...

Now near where I live I could often hear F16s as well...

What an irony that as a Chinese military fan I've NEVER saw or heard in real life any Chinese military aircrafts and helicopters before and the first fighters and attack helicopters I've seen are F16s and F15s and Apaches....but I've been to the C130's cockpit before simply because the queue was shorter, haha.

Heck I've almost twice sat in a F15's cockpit before but both times I gave up queueing...but during that school tour to an air base I've actually talked to the pilot and technician of the F15 and given the opportunity to admire the aircraft in close proximity--by close I mean being able to really touch almost every place I can reach, with the supervision of the air base personnel of course. That I must say is an awesome experience and the F15SG is really one fine aircraft!

I'm sorry I got too carried away with the excitement and was off-topic...last post about these personal experiences

 

[Equation]

When I lived in College Station, we've had F-16's and F-18's flying over us multiple times. And I'm not talking about those fly-by's before football games. Just weekdays during work hours when I walked on A&M campus, all of a sudden F-16's or F-18's would fly overhead in formation.

Those were probably either the 111th fighter squadron or the 147th fighter wing from Ellington Field AFB (right down the street to NASA JSC) before they were all moved to the base in San Antonio. Heck I still see the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds doing their practice runs for the air shows in Houston when I drove by in south of I-45.

 

[asif iqbal]

J15 looks good to me I bet whole naval Regiment is ready by years end

 

[Deino]

Re: Shenyang J-31 Fighter

Thanks for posting ... The so far best video I've seen on the J-31.

Regarding the number ist looks like 0601 ... maybe aircraft no. 01 of serial block 06.

Deino

 

[Totoro]

Re: Shenyang J-31 Fighter

There was that newsbit recently about 2014 being the year when j11b production will end. That also suggested there'd be one more regiment/batch to be seen during 2014. I guess that may be what we're seeing now.

But seeing how low j15 production is and seeing how there won't be a need for many j15 until 2020 at least, i would suggest it's also possible that small number of j15 are simply produced between j11b batches on one production line.

something like: 20 airframes of j11b, 4-6 airframes of j15, 20 aiframes of j11b, 6-8 airframes of j15 and so on.

before j15 production started similar arrangement may've been made for micro batches of j11bs between j11b batches.

And they may've thrown in one first preproduction j16 micro batch before doing the last j11b batch. So from 2015 or so onward it may be:

6-8 j16, 6-8 j15, 12+ j16, 6-8 j15, 20+ j16. then solely j16 batches in one production line until we get near to 2020 when more j15 (possibly slightly modernized) may get thrown into the mix.

 

[delft]

Re: Shenyang J-31 Fighter

There was that newsbit recently about 2014 being the year when j11b production will end. That also suggested there'd be one more regiment/batch to be seen during 2014. I guess that may be what we're seeing now.

But seeing how low j15 production is and seeing how there won't be a need for many j15 until 2020 at least, i would suggest it's also possible that small number of j15 are simply produced between j11b batches on one production line.

something like: 20 airframes of j11b, 4-6 airframes of j15, 20 aiframes of j11b, 6-8 airframes of j15 and so on.

before j15 production started similar arrangement may've been made for micro batches of j11bs between j11b batches.

And they may've thrown in one first preproduction j16 micro batch before doing the last j11b batch. So from 2015 or so onward it may be:

6-8 j16, 6-8 j15, 12+ j16, 6-8 j15, 20+ j16. then solely j16 batches in one production line until we get near to 2020 when more j15 (possibly slightly modernized) may get thrown into the mix.

We have often been told that J-10 and J-11 are built in batches, not on a production line as used for most USAF fighters. Investment for a production line is much higher than for a batch production plant but for a large production rate it is lower than for using several batch production facilities in parallel for the same production rate. A batch production facility is laid out for a certain batch size, with some flexibility, but producing batches of 6 aircraft between batches of 20 doesn't make sense. It does make sense to have a flexible plant that produces batches of J-15's between similar sized batches of J-16's.
Btw small batches don't really make sense at all for J-15 and J-16.

 

[Totoro]

Re: Shenyang J-31 Fighter

I believe it's more semantics than anything else - chinese batches or US lots. of course there's a difference between a pulsed line where floor crews stay put and planes get brought to them and factory floor where airframe stays put for a longer periods of time during which various floor crews switch around to do their bit of work.

just as there's no chance chengdu is actually building 40 j10 at once, i don't know if it's realistic to expect SAC to build 20 j11 at once. Rather, a number of airframes get assembled, once they're done, they go out and several new ones from the same batch get assembled.

Likewise, I believe various components and manufactured airframe parts aren't made so the shipment waits until there's enough for all the planes in a batch, but the parts trickle in smaller groups to the assembly floor.

So in effect, though a batch might hold 20+ planes, they get assembled in smaller groups, 6 by 6 by 6 or whatever. And a batch thus might be a small one - or larger, comprised of several groups. Of course, it takes more time to build more groups but batch doesn't denote a group that must be built at once, together, i believe batch means a number of airframes contracted under one (or more) contracts and sharing absolutely identical features and identical production process.

Even though several batches might be made of j10a or j11b, it doesn't mean planes between batches are identical - there will always be tiny modificiations brought to the project as the project matures, both to the planes themselves and towards making the production process more efficient.

 

[Air Force Brat]

J15 looks good to me I bet whole naval Regiment is ready by years end

SSSSSHHHHHH! No, I'm not trying to say a bad word, Brat here, reporting from deepest darkest Central Obamastan, and I mean it is deep and dark here in Central Obamastan, in fact we're up to our bony little butts in deep dark "stuff". Our Maximum leader received his terrorist training here from the Weather-Man---yeah that weather man, Bill Ayers..... Uh Huh! Him. But anyway today I joined a mission to photograph two former Soviet Aircraft, well there was more than two, but the two I went to photograph, were ensconsed deep with-in their hardened hangers, under lock and key, yes I am talking about Natasha, and the only flying Mig 21 on record in Central Obamastan, so in spite of several hours of flying in our Light Stealth Aircraft, equipped with special high lift devices, to get us into and hopefully out of those small enemy airfields, our primary target remains elusive, under tight security and 24 hour armed guard, of men armed with the ultimate stealth weapon,,,,yeah, blow-guns.

Anyway, in spite of low altitude heavy chop, I was able to insert the LSA into a short section of a 12,000 ft runway, away from the enemy base camp, and Natasha's highly fortified hangar. I was able to photo-graph Natasha's two sister ships, as well as several L-39s, one equipped with FLIR.... those pictures are now on my telephone, and once we secured the pictures, we were able to learn that Putin is helping to install O'bama, as DFL, yep, Dictator For LIFE, in exchange, Obama has allowed him to build a super secret, enemy airfield here in Central Obamastan, pictures will hopefully follow, on return to our forward operating area, there was a black helicopter hovering over the hillside surrounding our LSA recovery area, lots of activity, but darkness has now fallen here in Central Obamastan

 

[kwaigonegin]

Nothing beats living in Singapore.....

THE WHOLE ISLAND IS JUST THAT DAMN SMALL....

During my secondary school years I used to stay near school, and there's an army base nearby, where AH64s and CH47s flew almost EVERYDAY.

Sometimes they fly so low that I could almost see the details on the blades....

Then I used to travel to my flute teacher's home every weekend, and there's an air force base nearby...and I could hear and see F15SGs taking off and landing almost every week...

Now near where I live I could often hear F16s as well...

What an irony that as a Chinese military fan I've NEVER saw or heard in real life any Chinese military aircrafts and helicopters before and the first fighters and attack helicopters I've seen are F16s and F15s and Apaches....but I've been to the C130's cockpit before simply because the queue was shorter, haha.

Heck I've almost twice sat in a F15's cockpit before but both times I gave up queueing...but during that school tour to an air base I've actually talked to the pilot and technician of the F15 and given the opportunity to admire the aircraft in close proximity--by close I mean being able to really touch almost every place I can reach, with the supervision of the air base personnel of course. That I must say is an awesome experience and the F15SG is really one fine aircraft!

I'm sorry I got too carried away with the excitement and was off-topic...last post about these personal experiences

You've never lived until you hear a B1 on full reheat. I don't know how many decibels it was but that unholy noise will make grown men cry and rattle Earth's very foundation. the ea6 Prowlers are damn loud as well. Gerry can probably concur.