It proves there was work done on it at some point. My whole argument is that they may or may not exist -- therefore we can't act so certain that they do, due to lack of credible rumors and/or photos.
You don't design the nose of an aircraft if it's just gonna be a concept. Deciding whether to go along with a project is part of the concept stage, not the design stage. The nose of the aircraft, incorporating S intakes, is obviously a shot from the design stage. After all, JH-7B was supposed to be all digitally-designed. It means that the project has been underway.
I suppose "spreading like wildfire" and "here" need to be defined. Having a few threads and posts on CDF, key forums and SDF does not mean "wildfire". More like "gentle burning" -- the mass media reports on J-20 in the past week or so can be called "wildfire". The mass media on the DF-21D can be called wildfire.
The day before the J-16 info appeared on the Internet, there were NO J-16 reports in Western Internet (although there were plenty in Chinese internet). The day after, there were multiple posts.
You said there were no Western reports on J-10B. I gave you a Western report. That's what I was trying to prove.
Alright, then. Show me the article on the J-10B that Rick Fisher wrote. It's not that I don't believe you, it's just that I'm curious as to what he says.
That's not going to cut it -- a majority of people who knew their information said CAC were the primary contractors. It was like... at least three years ago when people thought SAC were heading it.
Everyone from Rick Fisher to Huitong said it was CAC who were the primary contractors for J-XX/J-20, months, and a good year or two before the first flight.
What do you mean by "a majority". From what I heard, even a "reliable" source like Huitong stated that the J-20 was built at SAC.
Three years ago, the J-20 wasn't even known. 3 years ago, people still sticked to the designations J-13 and J-12.
GlobalSecurity.com even reported that the J-XX consisted of J-12 and J-13 and J-14.
I'm pretty sure a "few" speculated that CAC was more suitable, but until the J-20 was fully released, many people thought that the CAC design lost to the SAC one.
Right... and JH-7B and J-16 are high priority, top secret proejcts, which is why we haven't heard/seen much of them??
The possibilities of SAC and XAC posting up internet ads and posters about their newest stealth aircraft are pretty close to zero
No solid information, but credible rumors and some blurry pictures. Nothing like that for JH-7B -- from the sounds of it JH-7B is a fanboy dream. J-16 I'm willing to give more leeway on but it still can't be considered real. Not real like the way we considered J-XX to be real about three years ago, anyway.
Define "credible rumor". That's an oxymoron. In fact, most of the so-called "credible rumors" you are talking about are nothing than a few lines of post on BBS threads.
Reports (yes, reports, not BBS) on JH-7B and J-16 are highly detailed, and different articles from different time periods are consistent with each others.
J-20 and J-10B were also fanboy dreams until March 2009 and December 22, 2010, respectively.
In post #38 you said:
I inferred that you meant "articles", which I think wasn't an overly adventourous belief.
Also, just for the record, I'm not saying that we need experts or news agencies to report on something to confirm a project's existance, or to convince myself -- I'm only bringing this up because you said J-16 was spreading like wildfire in western media.
Alright, no point in arguing over it, then.
Yes there's also a thread over at CDF for J-16 as well -- the fact that some forums are picking up on this shows us this project could be real, and there's some interest.
But what there hasn't been is any credible rumors aside from Huitong's post on his site.
Here are French ones:
I'm sorry, but Asian Defence isn't a very valid source, and frequently misreport.
I can't say what that French site says, but I also question its credibility until someone proves otherwise.[/QUOTE]
So anything that passes through Asian Defence is "not credible"? They reported J-20 as well.
Asian Defence did not originally report the J-16. They're passing on information. So it's not logical to say that all information on it is not valid.
Sure in maybe seven months these two aircraft could be seen in a more credible light.
You imply J-16 will have its first flight in roughly 7 months -- what about JH-7B? Supposedly it's first flight was at least a year ago, how come we've heard no (credible) rumors or even seen blurry pictures of it?
JH-7B's first flight date is somewhat debated. A guy on YouTube claims that he saw a TV report on the JH-7B, which said its maiden flight was December 23, 2010.