That’s basically the desert
J-10 Thread IV
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
Highest "mach speed" is 1.8. I'm not sure what the difference is...
SinoSoldier
Colonel
Mach 1.8 at altitude, likely Mach 1.1 at sea level.
Closest counterpart would be the Rafale in terms of speed.
Oh right. well in that case it's fairly reasonable isn't it...
The J-10C has a DSI inlet which will limit the maximum Mach number it can sustain, hence a lot of the current crop of planes that use DSIs don't have the high headline speeds of the previous generations that used more complex inlets. Current orthodoxy is that a stealthier, lighter and less complex inlet is better even if you're limited to around Mach 2!
Max Airspeed is probably Max (Indicated) Air Speed which is based on the air flow that an aircraft encounters during its flight in one hour and varies with altitude, so not the same as ground speed, Mach or velocity, it's just how the instrument traditionally used to measure 'speed' in aircraft records airspeed.
I guess folks who are actually in the market for fighters know what they are looking for and how to read the spec sheets!
There is no actual well defined speed limit for DSIs. The speed limit depends on the specific geometry of the inlet in conjunction with how well the engine performs as total pressure recovery drops.
Here are the zhuhai 2012 specs for basic j10. A bit more detailed, but some discrepancies are still weird.
Where does such height differnce come from?
Mach speed limit was the same, 1.8
The range figure was unexpected. Previous 1650 basic range figure now seems clear to have been referring to ferry range on internal fuel only.
Previously I thought it was some kind of ideal combat range, suggesting 3300+ ferry range...
But now with this 2950km ferry range figure it is clear that can't be the case.
Anyway, 2950 ferry range for j10 class plane, with 3 drop tanks is rather poor. And it makes no sense that it's refering to some other, very specific configuration, with only part of drop tank set used, for example.
We don't know whether the Mach speed limit of 1.8 was achieved with or without payload.
There are standards to these kind of specs. Everything is usually stated as max performance, for clean planes, with very little fuel.
That being said, instead of correct but very conditional specs, I find it more likely that either the specs are standardized and correct or that they are simply showing fake figures on purpose. Even for promo purposes.
That aside, Mach figure is something of little importance. The perceived poor ferry range figure seems like a much bigger issue to me.
That being said, instead of correct but very conditional specs, I find it more likely that either the specs are standardized and correct or that they are simply showing fake figures on purpose. Even for promo purposes.
That aside, Mach figure is something of little importance. The perceived poor ferry range figure seems like a much bigger issue to me.