Well, if CAS goes through with this programme to its completion, does it mean China is going to have the world's first 6th generation export fighter? We all know what happens to all the runner ups for PLA projects.
Chinese Engine Development
- Thread starter jackbh
- Start date
CAS's project isn't focused on conventional VCE, based on their comparison with J58 they are trying to make an efficient engine for high supersonic speeds. Completely different purpose compared to 6th gen engine.
No. Two problems with that train of thought:
1. Why do we think this specific program will reach completion to begin with? For all we know this specific project is tech demo only.
2. Even if it is completed, as has been written by multiple people, this engine is not necessarily suited for fighter applications.
There is such an abundance of funding, resources and talent poured into military aviation, space and hypersonic aircraft + missile programs.
If the same were afforded to civil aviation engines, we'd have Chinese competition to PW, GE, RR and CFM within 15 years or 1-2 product cycles. CJ-1000 may have caught up to the leading edge of 2010s but the state of Chinese military engines have met and in some areas surpassed the West esp scramjets, combined cycles and other continuous detonation engines.
PLA's VCE/ACE programs would be far superior and their programs ahead in basically every way compared to this academic research project. J-36 and J-50 may even get their intended VCE engines when the fighters are ready.
If the same were afforded to civil aviation engines, we'd have Chinese competition to PW, GE, RR and CFM within 15 years or 1-2 product cycles. CJ-1000 may have caught up to the leading edge of 2010s but the state of Chinese military engines have met and in some areas surpassed the West esp scramjets, combined cycles and other continuous detonation engines.
PLA's VCE/ACE programs would be far superior and their programs ahead in basically every way compared to this academic research project. J-36 and J-50 may even get their intended VCE engines when the fighters are ready.
Yes, hence the usage of the "platform" term instead of "fighter" in my posts.
However, I certainly do see a lot of merit for a platform that is capable of lobbing AAMs against enemy aerial assets at high-supersonic or hypersonic speeds and at altitudes of 20-40 kilometers (~66000-131000 feet). The advantages from the significant increase in effective interception ranges should be pretty evident from this compared to contemporary AAM launch methods.
In fact, I would see such platforms as further progressions of the J-36, mainly in terms of the capabilities and roles of which the latter is expected to take based on current inferences.
Survivability vs. Prosperity. Perhaps China is still trying to drive the civilian jet engine projects by market forces as much as possible.
I think including a generation number that directly follows 5th and 6th somewhat undermines that effort.
Maybe "future combat platform" would be better, but I am also hesitant to attribute an air to air role to whatever platform or aircraft this engine (or a derivative thereof) could be applied for.
Putting it another way, I think it should be an active goal to undermine the idea that this engine is intended for some sort of combat aircraft that could succeed J-36/J-XDS.
I really think it's better to avoid verbalizing ideas so specifically at this stage.
Not because the idea is implausible, but rather because there is so much which is so plausible for applications of this aircraft and and there are so many ways for what next generation air to air combat can look like, being more generic is probably safer.
Regarding the VCE program from AECC Shenyang, public reports from 2018 already mentioned it.Variable-cycle engine for China's next-generation fighter program?
The above photo is of a 7-page article published by the journal "Technology Reward" (科技奖励) in November of 2018 that contains an interview with Mr. Liu Yongquan (刘永泉), who is the chief designer at Shenyang Engine Design Institute. Unfortunately, I do not have access to the article. However, from , I gleaned this tidbit:
Please help with the translation, as I'm not sure about how to translate the green part of the text.
Of course, we don't know whether this was an entirely new project or just tested on the WS-10 platform. In any case, the progress of AECC's VCE will be significantly faster than that of CAS.