J-20 5th Gen Fighter Thread V
- Thread starter Deino
- Start date
- Status
HEH! Heh!, Heh!,, well I'm gonna back up Bubba here! the J-20 was from the outset designed around the WS-15, and I rather doubt that any of the J-20 designers would have anticipated that 5 years after first flight we would still be running Russian turbines in the J-20.
IMHO that's what precipitated the "inlet redesign" of the LRIP birds, the inlets were significantly reduced in size and volume to optimize those aircraft to operate the AL-31FN's.... that the LRIP birds where then subsequently so optimized came after the realization that the WS-15 was no where near airworthy, and make no mistake, they will continue to fly it on the IL-76 until they are absolutely certain it is in fact "airworthy!"
In my minds eye, those LRIP birds are still optimized for the WS-15, and the re-engine up to WS-15 will only require new inlets and a few control tweaks.
Do we have over twenty produced now?
by78
General
Hmmm, I was going to upload this image, but I stared and stared at it and wondered if this was photoshopped... On balance, I think not, but I wasn't certain enough to upload it.
Last edited:
I'd say were are around 15-16 flying aircraft including 2001 and 2002, I just haven't seen any evidence to contradict that serious "guestimation"?
- Status