We all bitched at the seemingly unending sea trials ...but this magnificent event-Bravo,kudos ten thousand times to all those involved-big or small -want to buy them all a great dinner and drinks.
CV-18 Fujian/003 CATOBAR carrier thread
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
they also said there was a photo of J-35 showing take off weight of 32t. I have only seen the one will 30t+ for KJ-600. Does anyone have the photo for J-35?
I wonder what's 32t configuration.
4 big fuel tanks+heavier than expected internal fuel loas? Even YJ-15c shouldn't add up to this weight.
Tradeoff of being conventionally powered. Don’t think it is much of an issue other than cosmetic.
Now that the catapult launches are done. Next big milestone for China's carriers is a long range mission with the Fujian with full load of planes. Either circle Australia, then maybe a mission in the Indian ocean- pass India and do a port call in Pakistan, then finally a long range mission to the east pacific by doing a pass by of California. Its time to show conventional carriers have no problem performing very long range missions if they have the necessary Oilers in tow.
You can't take every word they say at face value—they often talk nonsense.
The J-15 weighs 30 tons fully fueled, with a max takeoff weight of 33t. How could the J-35—which is significantly smaller than the J-15 in terms of size, weight, and engine thrust—possibly reach 32t?
If they had such a magic, who would need the WS-10? They could just buy more WS-21.
With such a slender frame, the max takeoff weight is only 1 ton less?
Last edited:
All Chinese carriers including liaoning and Shandong are capable of very long range missions. China has all the necessary replenishment ships. Its just China being very conservative about its naval missions. They don't want to poke Americans or the Indians too much by doing carrier ops near them.
It's just derived from the human learning experience. One of the fundamental principles of learning math for example, "don't skip steps", Quality control: "Don't cut corners", etc. Is it absurd for people to think A must come before B?
Secondly, the American Ford class had so many issues with the EMALS, it was easy to think China would also run into many of the same issues. Naturally, if they did have many issues, then it would make sense not to delay the carrier and go with steam to get the project going.
From all the chatter, we do know that there was a parallel steam catapult development, so again, none of this thinking was too crazy.
They do have more experience, I don't think it can be discounted. The question is whether that experience is overrated or not. In any case, it is pretty irrelevant because it's unlikely Indian and Chinese Naval Aviation will ever need to contend with each other within our lifetime.
No, the goal is "catapult an aircraft", not "use steam catapult to launch an aircraft". If everything must be done in a step-by-step manner, then the PLA first learned how to use gunpowder for ejection, then high-pressure gas, then inertial flywheels, hydraulic mechanics, rocket-assisted ejection, and finally steam catapults.
Do you really think this makes sense?