CV-18 Fujian/003 CATOBAR carrier thread

Confusionism · 2025-09-23T12:37:30-0400

lcloo said:
Other than the size, won't the two engines on J35 weight more than the single engine on F-35C?

so? Do you understand the meaning of MTOW?
heavier engine only reduces your max payload, not necessarily increasing your MTOW. Otherwise, could I just bolt two barbells onto the engine to boost my MTOW?

mack8 · 2025-09-23T12:40:39-0400

Is there any info/guesstimate as to what the regular Fujian airgroup will be, how many of each type, fighter, ECM, AEW, helos? And while at it is there similar info for how many Liaoning and Shandong typically operate these days, for comparison?

Heliox · 2025-09-23T12:46:14-0400

QIUSIYU said:

Of all the videos so far, this is my absolute fave moment - The door cracking open to the Fujian flight deck right smack into the KJ-600 with the sound of flight operations going on in the background.

This pilot stepping onto that flight deck is quite symbolic of the PLAN stepping into the next generation of capabilities, very much a RMA "moment" for the PLAN. I reckon every pilot in the PLA would absolutely give their left nut to be him.

vincent · 2025-09-23T13:56:26-0400

tphuang said:
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?

They were drunk (literally). Take that with a huge grain of salt.

siegecrossbow · 2025-09-23T13:57:52-0400

vincent said:
They were drunk (literally). Take that with a huge grain of salt.

Don’t drink and podcast…

tphuang · 2025-09-23T14:23:50-0400

vincent said:
They were drunk (literally). Take that with a huge grain of salt.

he also repeated it on a separate video looking completely sober

taxiya · 2025-09-23T14:58:03-0400

F-35 has an engine with larger diameter due to the increased fan size, but that increase does not translate too much in weight because the increased volume is the bypass duct which is mostly empty. J-35 looks slimer on the side but it has two engines, so looking from top it has much bigger volume than F-35. So although F-35 looks much bulkier it may not be necessarily heavier than J-35. I am not saying J-35 is heavier or of the same weight, but saying that it is not very stretched that J-35 is close to F-35 in max weight.

Also I see someone saying that F-35C has larger wing areas (therefor heavier), that is only true compared to J-35A, J-35 increases the wing area from J-35A in the same way as F-35A to F-35C.

Maikeru · 2025-09-23T15:37:03-0400

NavalNews article with some interesting observations on dating the recently released imagery. Seems some was as early as a year ago!

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tphuang · 2025-09-23T15:43:51-0400

taxiya said:
F-35 has an engine with larger diameter due to the increased fan size, but that increase does not translate too much in weight because the increased volume is the bypass duct which is mostly empty. J-35 looks slimer on the side but it has two engines, so looking from top it has much bigger volume than F-35. So although F-35 looks much bulkier it may not be necessarily heavier than J-35. I am not saying J-35 is heavier or of the same weight, but saying that it is not very stretched that J-35 is close to F-35 in max weight.

Also I see someone saying that F-35C has larger wing areas (therefor heavier), that is only true compared to J-35A, J-35 increases the wing area from J-35A in the same way as F-35A to F-35C.

J-35 also clearly has a larger nose than J-15T (based on previous photos), so I think it has just a wider interior in the front than F-35C. So, I don't think 32t is out of question here for MTOW.

What is interesting is to see how heavy J-15DT come out as. All that heavy electronics inside is going to weight quite a bit.

BillRamengod · 2025-09-23T16:18:16-0400

tphuang said:
F-35C has MTOW of 32t. Why can't J-35 have that level of MTOW? Its nose is thicker than J-15. I also don't see why you would know the true MTOW of J-15 off CV-18. That is classified data.

I put this out there just to see if anyone has seen a photo of it. Still looking.

Rewatching all the footage, I only found two numbers.

03100 for KJ-600: