J-20 5th Generation Fighter VII

One of the things to point out is that the J-20's bottom converts into a double cylindrical format as it gets closer to the rear, presumably for engine housing. With the right angle, the J-20's bottom can easily look asymmetric for that reason.

sinophilia said:

Obviously it is photography? I swear I thought it was a painting.

No shit it's photography, and a few of us spent some time analyzing why it looks the way it does. Only 'obvious' to people like you.

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Thinking J-20 may have centimeters worth of precision issues is ***hilarious***

Inst said:

One of the things to point out is that the J-20's bottom converts into a double cylindrical format as it gets closer to the rear, presumably for engine housing. With the right angle, the J-20's bottom can easily look asymmetric for that reason.

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Exactly.

The photo is pretty much straight aligned and not from weird angles. The belly "misalignment" is the exhaust fata morgana (or mirage) effect.

Every other photo of J-20 shows perfectly aligned weapons bay. Millimeter precision along the weapons bay and it's even framed by a more flexible "seal" layer to further absorb and distort radio waves from radars getting returns on just the millimeter gaps between moving and static surfaces along the bay.

Even the prototype FC-31 bay's alignment from TEN years ago (which was very poorly done for the prototype) was aligned better than "shown" in this photo.

One issue is that the gaps in the panels seem quite large on the weapons bays. Not necessarily misaligned but definitely a gap. I don't know if there's a reasoning but I know that generally this will hurt the RCS.

I've heard some people say it's black paint but I'm not sure.

ougoah said:

The photo is pretty much straight aligned and not from weird angles. The belly "misalignment" is the exhaust fata morgana (or mirage) effect.

Every other photo of J-20 shows perfectly aligned weapons bay. Millimeter precision along the weapons bay and it's even framed by a more flexible "seal" layer to further absorb and distort radio waves from radars getting returns on just the millimeter gaps between moving and static surfaces along the bay.

Even the prototype FC-31 bay's alignment from TEN years ago (which was very poorly done for the prototype) was aligned better than "shown" in this photo.

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gongolongo said:

One issue is that the gaps in the panels seem quite large on the weapons bays. Not necessarily misaligned but definitely a gap. I don't know if there's a reasoning but I know that generally this will hurt the RCS.

I've heard some people say it's black paint but I'm not sure.

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I know visually that may look like a gap but in actuality the panels of doors "overlap". There is literally zero gap there. What you are seeing is a panel over another panel and the "gap" you see is the thickness of the panel.

J-20 has gone through several small paint and surface changes after service and before A variant appeared. The black layer is on some and not on others. I haven't tracked when they appeared if they're the most recent ones or been superceded.

Here are some photos showing its belly.











These have the black "seal" which probably is there just to totally cover any millimeter sized gaps. Before the black seal, the gaps were still not that visible... or maybe that's after. Anyway it seems to me that the black seal layer could only improve stealth since without them, there are certainly unavoidable gaps until they revolutionise materials science. Maybe under a certain size, the gaps won't matter much at all.

It's Mid 2021 and still waiting for the six AAM that J-20 was slated to carry.

Cropping the fins and doing Aerodynamic tests can be troublesome but not enough for China.

I shall enquire about it from time to time until I get a pic with six AAM in the Main weapons bay.

Xsizor said:

It's Mid 2021 and still waiting for the six AAM that J-20 was slated to carry.

Cropping the fins and doing Aerodynamic tests can be troublesome but not enough for China.

I shall enquire about it from time to time until I get a pic with six AAM in the Main weapons bay.

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...what are you the helicoptering CEO of China watching?

I actually suspect the black seal is metamaterials. It doesn't resemble any black paint we've ever seen, so it stands to reason there's a chance it's a layer of metamaterials or at least next-gen RAM used to seal the gap and absorb specular reflections.