J-15 carrier-borne fighter thread

[SinoSoldier]

Via lkj 86
April 30, 2020
View attachment 59731

Possibly related, but @huitong seems to be increasingly convinced that the batch 03 J-15s are of the J-15B variant and that they'll serve on the Type 002.

From his blog:

The latest image (February 2020) suggested that the 03 batch (J-15B) is being built for the the indigenous Type 002 aircraft carrier.

Perhaps the lack of a reinforcing strut is indicative of this.

 

[Blitzo]

My bad, I wasn't aware of the difference. Then I'd be curious to know why they put a random J-15 nearby. Is it just one from the newer batch to show the production is proceding normally, or could it be a improved version with internal upgrades like radar and electronics? Or it's just sitting there, having nothing to do with the ceremony at all. Wish we know the second half of those words on the screen not shown in the photo.

Yeah I'm confused why people think this is necessarily a new aircraft?
It has markers on it, and it's in yellow, meaning it is obviously a prototype of some sort.

It doesn't have any visible features or differences from standard vanilla J-15s...


So I would've concluded that this is probably one of the original J-15 prototypes??

 

[SinoSoldier]

Yeah I'm confused why people think this is necessarily a new aircraft?
It has markers on it, and it's in yellow, meaning it is obviously a prototype of some sort.

It doesn't have any visible features or differences from standard vanilla J-15s...


So I would've concluded that this is probably one of the original J-15 prototypes??

Not sure if the sign was correctly translated earlier but if so then it could point towards the aircraft being a new prototype, possibly of the B variant. Or even a production aircraft that's fresh from the factory.

 

[Blitzo]

... or maybe the aircraft is just unrelated?
Behind the yellow J-15 with the markers we can see a grey J-15 as well -- for all we know they are just aircraft which happens to be on the tarmac at the time, and whatever the full sign refers to, it could be referring to aircraft "on the right" of the photo from our perspective.

 

[SinoSoldier]

It was my impression that all J-15 prototypes have been painted.

 

[Deino]

It was my impression that all J-15 prototypes have been painted.

No, some are still in yellow today

 

[SinoSoldier]

That was taken at CTFE.

Any idea with J-15 variant the banner/sign was referring to?

 

[Deino]

That was taken at CTFE.

Thanks, but what do you think?

At least IMO the yellow one is not the catapult version J-15T so is the text related to an aircraft not visible or is this indeed a Batch 03 aircraft that simply does not differ much to the regular J-15s!

Thanks in advance,

 

[Deino]

By the way, this J-15 seems to have no ejection seat fitted!

 

[Scorpio]

View attachment 59738

The strut behind the nose wheel looks to me like a large provisionally solution, to bring the aircraft without a longlasting development into the air (so the decision for the catapult and construction of the carrier can be made). I would not be surprised if it is solved in a different way on the production aircraft.

Does its mean some kind of improvement to handles max weight issue for j15 when it fly from carrier