Chinese Engine Development

D

delft

Brigadier
Totoro said:
j11b went into serial production in 2007, allegedly 5 years after first flight. That'd make some 7 years of production so far for a total of roughly 140-150 planes. (assuming this second planaf regiment has been fully formed by now)

Overall that is around 20 something j11b/bs per year, but there was probably some sort of ramp up in the beginning. something like (this is for illustration only) 8 airframes in 2007, 16 in 2008, 24 from 2009 onward.

There's clearly some j15 production going on, hard to tell how many, possibly we're in the middle of the first or second year of serial production so perhaps 8-24 planes total. J16 may be on the verge of being ready but, alongside J15, it seems likely to me it really is waiting until last batch of j11b is out of the door. So maybe first half of next year we might see some j16s for testing and tactics development with PLAAF. Probably not a full regiment formed on top of the training and tactics development examples though before 2015.

All in all, it does seem 24 or so is peak rate at which shenyang produced both j11a and j11b. At times it was a bit less, when a new model was worked into. Perhaps the line which produced J8s will be used for extra planes, though, that's hard to tell. But would that mean a regiment of j11b and a regiment of j16 side by side each year? Or two regiments of j16? The latter seems like a better option, especially concerning the number of q5 regiments to be replaced. But that doubled flanker production rate seems another year or so away, i don't think it happened yet, otherwise we would've already seen more new regiments formed in the last two years.
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I understand that Chinese fighters are produced in batches, not in serial production. Prototype production is something different but now a batch of J-15's is being produced in the Flanker plant that previously produced J11b's and might do so again if more are needed. I expect that soon J15 and J16 batches will follow each other in the same plant as needed by PLAAF and PLANAF.
 
Blitzo

Blitzo

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Hmm I wonder if there are any incremental differences an upgrades between "batches" of an aircraft?

Developments in software, mostly, but also possibly engines? Over on CDF there's a pic identifying what seems to be J-11Bs equipped with WS-10As that have nozzles of different length possibly indicating that some are equipped with a slightly uprated version of taihang.
 
T

Totoro

Major
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taking from other aircraft programmes, there are always some changes between batches. They may range from very simple changes mostly relating to the manufacturing process, to small changes on the internal subsystems to even certain changes relating to the outside appearance (added antennas and such) or even that alleged longer ws10 variant, but first those changes would have to be tested on existing development aircraft. Then if successful it'd be applied to one of the future production batches.

I must say if true that a new version of taihang has longer nozzle it'll make the job of telling apart al31 and ws10 a bit harder. Especially on flankers, where it was pretty easy to tell them apart just looking at whether the nozzles reach the trailing edges of horizontal tails or are they shorter.
 
tphuang

tphuang

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Totoro said:
taking from other aircraft programmes, there are always some changes between batches. They may range from very simple changes mostly relating to the manufacturing process, to small changes on the internal subsystems to even certain changes relating to the outside appearance (added antennas and such) or even that alleged longer ws10 variant, but first those changes would have to be tested on existing development aircraft. Then if successful it'd be applied to one of the future production batches.

I must say if true that a new version of taihang has longer nozzle it'll make the job of telling apart al31 and ws10 a bit harder. Especially on flankers, where it was pretty easy to tell them apart just looking at whether the nozzles reach the trailing edges of horizontal tails or are they shorter.
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I think this is what you are referring to?

WS10A+Differences-Oct22.jpg
 
A

AeroEngineer

Junior Member
According to CJDBY.

New batch of J-15 is ready to land on LaioNing. 16 J-15s, most of them using AL-31F engine and 2-4 of them using WS-10H to be flight tested soon.

Things are looking good for WS-10 engine, first J-16 and now J-15, perhaps in 2-3 years it will be mass equipping J-10B and eventually exported to Pakistan.

:D
 
Blitzo

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I suppose we'll have pictures soon enough to see whether Liaoning will launch and cycle through that many aircraft, considering it left port just a day or so ago.
 
S

Schumacher

Senior Member
AeroEngineer said:
According to CJDBY.

New batch of J-15 is ready to land on LaioNing. 16 J-15s, most of them using AL-31F engine and 2-4 of them using WS-10H to be flight tested soon.

Things are looking good for WS-10 engine, first J-16 and now J-15, perhaps in 2-3 years it will be mass equipping J-10B and eventually exported to Pakistan.

:D
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Besides J16, J15B is the other one to have used WS10 from first flight.
 
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