J-20 5th Gen Fighter Thread V

[delft]

What are the fins on the fuel tank for?

I guess to let them get clean away when they are jettisoned. It moves the centre of effort of force due to air flow aft of the centre of mass.

 

[Broccoli]

Dropping "stuff" from fighters can be complicated business.

 

[delft]

Thank you Broccoli. No ghost movie can be as disturbing as this video.

 

[Deino]

J-20A spotted over Hailar ....

 

[tidalwave]

I heard there will 3 production lines for J20.
One with AL31F, another one with WS10 series, and the final one will be with WS15.

 

[Deino]

I heard there will 3 production lines for J20.
One with AL31F, another one with WS10 series, and the final one will be with WS15.

IMO highly unlikely and as unlikely as these reports about 3 aircraft per month x 3 = 9 J-20 already now !! Why should they produce three different versions on three different lines ?

By all accounts we know - besides some very funny guys at the PDF ! - the current birds all use a AL-31FN or so version ... so there is no need for a WS-10-powered version esp. since the WS-15 is not ready yet and if it will replace the current one, which then will no longer be manufactured.

IMO only a rumours without any substance.

Deino

 

[tidalwave]

IMO highly unlikely and as unlikely as these reports about 3 aircraft per month x 3 = 9 J-20 already now !! Why should they produce three different versions on three different lines ?

By all accounts we know - besides some very funny guys at the PDF ! - the current birds all use a AL-31FN or so version ... so there is no need for a WS-10-powered version esp. since the WS-15 is not ready yet and if it will replace the current one, which then will no longer be manufactured.

IMO only a rumours without any substance.

Deino

AL31F stockpiles already running low and it's shared by multiple planes.
They don't want that as bottleneck for any production. Make sense to use WS10 as backup till 2019 when WS15 comes onboard. Still a long, long time.

 

[jobjed]

AL31F stockpiles already running low.

Oh, I don't know, order some more, maybe?

 

[tidalwave]

They don't know if WS15 can for sure take over in 2019. Let's say WS15 runs into problem
By 2019, are they still ordering more AL31F???
Unlikely, they would prefer to use WS10 enhanced version till WS15 comes fully onboard.

It's make perfect sense for them to start another production line using WS10 enhanced version,

 

[manqiangrexue]

They don't know if WS15 can for sure take over in 2019. Let's say WS15 runs into problem
By 2019, are they still ordering more AL31F???
Unlikely, they would prefer to use WS10 enhanced version till WS15 comes fully onboard.

It's make perfect sense for them to start another production line using WS10 enhanced version,

WS-10 is similar to AL-31 in performance but it is not AL-31 so it is not plug-and-fly. The jet needs to re-undergo flight-testing for weight distribution/inlet/flight control optimization to switch to the Taihang and it won't come with any performance increase (possibly even a decrease?), so is it worth the effort? I don't know the answer to that but if I were in AVIC and wanted to reduce use of AL-31 in favor of Taihang, I'd first start using WS-10X on whole batches of J-10B/C before opting to go to J-20 since work has already been done in that direction.