J-20 5th Gen Fighter Thread VIII
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
The new canopy is still one piece. The reinforcement bar is inside the canopy to provide structural support so it can be made thinner.
To reduce weight and distortion by making glass thinner.
Canopy without the frame has to be made very thick especially in the front. This added weight and increased distortion due to thick curvy glass, and of course hard to break it when needed. Adding a frame solves all problems.
Quite a lot of le exposed rivets there. Anyone care to explain? Could it be that RAM coating hasn't been applied or some other reason?
You haven't seen rivets on the F-22 and the F-35?
If you want to see you can always find it.
Zoom in, rivets are everywhere.
Some people will argue that this is a prototype, but the construction did not change, in production items the rivets are still there just some of them are covered by thick paint or tape.
Production F-35C, about half rivets are covered. The light condition is not ideal to identify areas too bright or too dark.
Why j-20 isn't doing it? We know F-35 uses mostly composite skin which has a very unpleasent electro-static characteristic must be dealt with.
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I mean I have, I just wanted an explanation in general
I'm I mistaken or are you claiming J-20s and J-35s are metal skinned?
First, rivets can be concealed by applying coatings or special tape, so stealth fighters don't lack rivets; rather, some are obscured.
Second, many of these rivets that must be exposed are used to secure hatch covers to access hatches. A trade-off must be made between rapid assembly and disassembly maintenance and greater smoothness (stealth). When countersunk rivets (which completely sink into the skin) are used to achieve superior smoothness, they forgo masking materials.
This is why the J-35, F-35, J-20, and F-22 all have partially exposed rivets.
I heard about something like RAM adhesive. Is that a real thing?