I've been thinking. Is a civilian VCE turbofan feasible?
Chinese Engine Development
- Thread starter jackbh
- Start date
Yes, which makes me think those concepts aren't necessarily related to a next (7th) generation "fighter".
I suppose what I'm saying is these engine developments should be interpreted in the whole breadth of possible uses, and people shouldn't think of a next generation fighter in the first instance yet.
Not least because we don't know what 7th generation will look like (we don't even fully know what 6th generation will look like)
Of course, if there’s interest in supersonic commercial airliners (but you’d have to solve a number of other problems too).
Remember that hypersonic aircraft that circled the globe? I believe 7th gen will be like that. A fat HGV like aircraft that breach limit of traditional air based design that can appear anywhere on the planet within few hours. I guess you can say every fighter is a strategic bomber. We are reaching multi role of a new definition.
Every J-70 can do what H-20 does.
Analysis from a PW engineer claiming this engine seems to be optimized for Mach 3+ speeds. Not sure where this was originally posted,
EDIT: It's from the Secret Projects forum
EDIT: It's from the Secret Projects forum
What if J-50 and J-36 will have different VCE engines? J-36 is evidently designed for long-range, high-speed, high-altitude CAP over neutral or possibly hostile airspace, while J-50 is far more conventional. Wouldn't a XA-100/103 concept engine work better for the J-50? China doesn't seem to lack funding nor personnel for running several advanced projects in parallel afterall.
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Not really.
J-36 doesn't really seem optimized as a planform for Mach 3+
Both J-36 and J-XDS look appropriate to share the same powerplant both in geometry and envelope, if anything.
That wasn't a hypersonic aircraft, it was more like a hypersonic payload and it was a FOBS trajectory.
At this stage there is no indication of what a 7th generation aircraft would look like, so we shouldn't be so fanciful with these ideas and become too crazy just because of a VCE oriented for higher Mach speeds than a usual fighter.
For all we know it isn't intended for a fighter at all, but rather for a reconnaissance or strike aircraft.
I was confused at why it was being suggested this VCE was a civilian project, but the optimization for high supersonic speeds would make sense for a spaceplane project.
It's not so much that it is a "civilian" project but rather that this isn't the VCE for their 6th gen projects.
For all we know this could have applications for space planes or high speed aircraft of any variety -- which can have both military and civilian applications.
Nope. J-36/J-XX both platforms will share same propulsion.. it will be nightmare to produce and maintain two different high end cycle Engine platforms.
i didn't even know that CAS is too working on next gen propulsion up until now. seems like this is for research purpose or for some other application.
apart from this, AECC Shenyang confirmed has ACE/VCE program. most likely is in advance stages right now.
there is one more next gen propulsion program. but very less information is available.