China Flanker Thread II
- Thread starter sumdud
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vesicles
Colonel
Based on what I know about PLA, they are meticulous about keeping their equipment clean and well-maintained. When was the last time you saw a piece of PLA equipment that is dirty? Even if they keep the plane on deck and in use 12 hours a day, they still have to find time to do maintenance. The plane can be cleaned while in service. So I actually think that they may be leaving it alone on purpose. Like Blackstone said, they may be testing endurance, etc.
Quickie
Colonel
Black soot wouldn't affect negatively, if any at all, on the performance of the aircraft. In fact a bit of roughness on the aircraft surface actually improves its aerodynamics. Perhaps, they found out how the black soot actually improves the aircraft aerodynamics slightly and are leaving it as it is for the moment, perhaps to investigate it further. Just a theory.
In the past, PLAN and PLAAF is known to not attempt to sustain the tempo of operation frequently seen with western forces. If these J-15 are indeed flying 6 sorties a day for long periods, then they are now trying a world class tempo of operation. If that is the case, then the grubby appearence of the J-15 may simply reflect that fact that the operating tempo have surpassed what the maintenance crew have been use to, and under stress of doing more important parts of their work much faster, the maintenance crew reasonably would let the less important part of their work, like spit and polish, fall behind.
Quickie, if soot improved aircraft performance, they would coat them with soot from the factory, and if roughness improves aerodynamics, they would hire trained monkees to beat on them with hammers, this sounds like something you know who would come up with, ROTFL, oh my, the Bohai is a rough little backwater, not very deep and likely has a fair bit of pollution, that stuff is HARD on equipment, and likely lots of siltation, etc,, and bugs and birds, well you get the picture, real life is messy! and yes I do remember a few Asian ports, and that lovely smell, kinda like a skunk, it does grow on you??? brat
Lintuperhonen
New Member
Sorry, it was intended to be a joke.
You were talking about the P-51 mustang case, where the skin surface was manufactured rougher than expected but was found to reduce drag?
thunderchief
Senior Member
Salty water coupled with poor quality paint . Usually when you paint marine stuff , primer should have anti-corrosive properties , while surface paint (in this case light blue) should actually be porous . If you don't do that , your surface paint will start some chemical reactions with salt (don't ask me to explain them , I was always bad at chemistry
) which makes that dirty and rusty looking residue . Btw , it is not that bad , Russians also had that problem on their ships and naval aircraft , and yet they keep on working .On the other hand , PLAAN could spend some time and money in developing new paint for their naval aircraft .Btw , Su-33 in similar position :
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Quickie
Colonel
This is something not so clearcut. Uneven surface at the wrong place could cause parasitic drag, but in some cases it actually improves the aerodynamics by reducing drag etc.
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