Huge, impressive and sinister- the J may become the first non-American stealth fighter to enter service. Every donation helps us- thank you. Donations buttons can be spotted by the eagle-eyed on this page. However, there are a few indicators that I was able to pull out for whatever they are worth. For a start, the short-onset high-alpha capabilities appear to be pretty good for such a large aircraft β a function of the canard layout and clean lines, along with side-mounted intakes.
Equally, the instantaneous turn rate is not too sluggish on the first break considering that it was almost certainly pulling less than the full production version will be capable of. On the other hand, the display manoeuvres appear to have been carefully managed to avoid bleeding too much energy and one gets the impression that even with afterburners, the acceleration is less than impressive.
This should not come as too much of a surprise, since jet engine technology continues to be a limiting factor for both Chinese and Russian fifth generation fighter programmes, and as previously mentioned, the J is hardly a lightweight machine. Unlike legacy Russian examples, the engines appear to be smokeless- what does this mean? The J has sleek lines and appears to be a good blend of aerodynamic lessons learnt in various Western and Chinese development programmes over the past thirty years.
As such, it is likely to have a high top speed in the Mach 2 category, but the large size and weight of the aircraft, coupled with the developmental nature of the WS suggests that its acceleration and, therefore, time required to regain lost energy during manoeuvres may lag significantly behind its Western rivals.
Claims that the J is capable of supercruising are probably credible, but it probably takes significantly longer to do so than the F Judging the J against the F and F is certainly tempting, but I would suggest that the J is better understood as a stealthy analogy to the F than a stealth Su It will be a long ranged, difficult to detect but not all-aspect VLO strike and interdiction fighter that can pose a serious threat to the forward bases, AWACS aircraft and aerial refuelling tankers on which the US and its allies depend in the Asia Pacific.
