Shenyang FC-31 / J-31 Fighter Demonstrator
- Thread starter RedSky
- Start date
Nice catch A.Man, and I for one am very happy for Shenyang, and the FC-31 team, they have persisted with this airplane, an airplane they believe in, but then I have spoken for the J-31 Prototype when they are done with it, will be my new air-show display aircraft!
It does indeed appear to be a Mig-29er class carrier bird, and this bird, in primer! she is drop dead gorgeous!
Do we know if the current version of the J-31 is consistent with the needs of a carrier based aircraft or would it need a bigger wing area ?
Very little Zinc Chromate paint visible, that means more use of composite. Now all we need to see is the wings.
That's a great question, and if indeed the Chinese follow the US lead with an Air Force, and a Navy version of the FC-31, they may well enlarge the wing and stabilator of the Navy bird, just as LockMart did on the F-35, you simply "scale up" the whole attach points etc, but LockMart rates the F-35C for 7.5 g's as opposed to USAF's F-35A at 9 g's?
Stricter structural limits are in place for Navy aircraft to avoid premature airframe wearing.
SinoSoldier
Colonel
According to very recent rumors, there was quite a big commotion at SAC in the past two days or so. There were apparently VIP vehicles with plates of officials, a banner being put up inside SAC, and heavy police presence. Don't know if it's related to the FC-31 (now rumored to be known within the PLA as "J-35"), J-15, or something else.
Additionally, the FC-31 has been "continuously flying" for the past two days.
Additionally, the FC-31 has been "continuously flying" for the past two days.
Current trend is(still) lack of any realistic threat to bother.
When such threat existed - US navys' next fighter was air superiority/fleet defense NATF, not multirole JSF. ;-)
+/- same engine power, but mich fatter: weapon bays are "expensive" feature to a fighter.
Actually NO! everybody wants their bird to pull 9g's, but the Navy F-35C has larger wings and stabilator in order to create more lift at a given airspeed, the F-35C needed larger wings to meet the maximum over the fantail speed of 145 knots,, the A model would prolly want to be pulling 165 knots over the fantail, so the wing area had to be increased and the stabilator size was also increased to get that girl to have similar pitch transitions to the A model, which has been to 9.9Gs in test.
The Navy bird is indeed heavier, and that is also a big factor, more wing, more lift, more weight, more fuel,, all adds up to a lower g limit in order not to break the wing attach/center fuselage juncture.
The B model with small wings is limited to 7gs as the lift fan, STOVL equipment displaces the back-bone of the airframe, which is split in order to run around the lift fan and associated hardware...
The Super Hornet is prolly rated at 7 to 7.5gs positive as well, so not a new thing for Navy, but the airframe life on traditional fighters is limited by the number of CAT's and TRAP's as they put a great deal of additional stress on the airframe,,,, once they reach that limit, they are no longer carrier qualed, they are then land based for the rest of their airframe lives until they "time-out".
Carrier Fighters have gotten smaller, and the J-15 while larger, will not haul a full load of weapons or fuel off that ramp, so its wasted space, while occupying the space of approx. 1.5 Mig-29s. FC-31 is indeed an aircraft whose time has come, China seems to be realizing those objectives and concerns even as we speak, but hey,,,,I'm just the AFB, but I do operate off a very short grass strip, and in some ways that's very similar to a carrier, limited amount of room to get on and off, I had to abort two departures last spring due to water on the airstrip, I finally departed to the South as there was no way of clearing the trees/buildings on the North end, so yes, I understand big versus small aircraft and airstrips.
Since China does NOT have Catobar carrier at present?? those FC-31s are "right sized" for the Liaoning and sister.
So lets see what develops here shall we??
Oh, and every take-off is "Up-Hill", yes that does make a difference, the ramp is helpful, but it also hurts a little bit??