Isn't it clear enough from the hints given that J-20 is being mass produced already? There's no need for a flanker derived, dedicated air superiority fighter when the PLAAF already operate the J-16, improving J-11B to G standard with AESA, and have a handful of Su-35s for limited confrontations and intercepts. J-10C is also a modern air superiority fighter. How many 4th gens does the PLAAF want? For sure the priority will be given to buying J-20s instead of J-11D. J-16s are probably still receiving upgrade development funding just like the J-10 series may be as well.
China Flanker Thread II
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plawolf
Lieutenant General
A general question about Flankers, but I have never seen any kind of head mount used with Flanker helmets, so how do Flanker pilots wear NVGs during night operations?
As far as I am aware, the HMS for flanker helmets is extremely rudimentary, so cannot act as a HMD to project imagery from the IRST directly to the pilots’ eyes.
So do flankers just do instruments only during night ops, or is there so sort of workaround?
As far as I am aware, the HMS for flanker helmets is extremely rudimentary, so cannot act as a HMD to project imagery from the IRST directly to the pilots’ eyes.
So do flankers just do instruments only during night ops, or is there so sort of workaround?
The Flanker helmets used to be manufactured in Ukraine. The picture above shows a SURA-I HMTDS.
The helmet AFAIK can aim and display flight symbology with the SURA HMTDS attached to the bracket on the helmet.
It is probably a vector display with no raster capability so I doubt it can overlay images.
I think I have heard of night vision goggles also being possible to attach to the helmet bracket.
The Russians have recently made their own helmets to replace Ukrainian supply.
I do know that Russian helicopter helmets can have night sights on them.
They are also developing more modern VR helmets for the helicopters and the Su-57:
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Does anyone know why Flankers have what looks like metallic plates over their engine and in the case of Su-35, also the horizontal stabilizer? I'm not sure if they affect the performance noticeably, but I haven't noticed any other fighter design that has those parts.
Probably to add stiffness and dissipate heat. The original Su-35s didn't have visible metal in the tail. I guess they added it to increase stiffness because of TVC induced fatigue or some other reason. The engine covers, probably to dissipate heat.
Also that part of the engines typically isn't visible to radar so...
All of that is titanium, which is hard to paint for one and in the case of the engine casings, it helps disipate the heat. For the elevators, it works as a shield to protect them from the missiles' exhausts.
The "enemy plane" struck, and the pilot of the lead plane planned a hierarchical interception by the crew through the data link.
In late autumn, an airport in the north of the Great Wall was still hot. As a green signal flares cut through the sky, the war eagles whizzed and took off... A certain unit of the air force in the central theater focused on missions and organized multi-course and multi-batch cross-day and night flight training to comprehensively test the actual combat level of the troops.
In late autumn, an airport in the north of the Great Wall was still hot. As a green signal flares cut through the sky, the war eagles whizzed and took off... A certain unit of the air force in the central theater focused on missions and organized multi-course and multi-batch cross-day and night flight training to comprehensively test the actual combat level of the troops.
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