J-10 Thread III (Closed to posting)
- Thread starter crobato
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Semi-Lobster
Junior Member
Its an RC plane and I'm pretty sure this has been posted on here before in a previous J-10 thread.
Londo Molari
Junior Member
RC planes are insanely more maneuverable and agile compared to real aircraft, this is because they are made of very light materials (Plastic, Styrofoam, etc) resulting in very high thrust to weight ratio and very powerful control surfaces. Of course such light materials cannot be used for large-scale construction, and even if they could, the top-speeds would be very low.
I doubt any real aircraft could move like that RC-aircraft in the video. And even if it could, it would instantaneously kill the pilot due to the G forces.
vesicles
Colonel
thanks guys! I was seriously amazed at the clip when I 1st saw it. I thought I saw a "cobra" being done by the "J-10" at low altitude, which I thought was impossible. All a fluke! Now I can admit to my colleagues that I was fooled 
. I guess that'll give them (and you guys) something to laugh at me about for a couple of weeks.
. I guess that'll give them (and you guys) something to laugh at me about for a couple of weeks.RedMercury
Junior Member
Only known instance where J-10 flew to the public was at Zhuhai 2008 and there is a video of that, which does not look like this. That should be conclusive enough. It is a RC model.
Agreed. But this effect also goes beyond the materials being used. Weight (and volume) will scale as the length cubed, while area will scale as length squared. The result is that the wing loading will be much lower than the real aircraft, while (as you suggest) thrust loading will be higher. Both effects lead to a far more agile airplane.
Consider for example a 1/10th scale model. Even assuming that the RC model used similar materials (which it doesn't), the model airplane would have one tenth the wing loading of the actual, full scale airplane. Neglecting for the moment the effects of boundary layer transition and the higher thrust-to-weight ratio afforded by the subscale model, both the sustained and instantaneous turn rate should increase by roughly 10X in this example, due to the effects of wing loading alone.
This particular RC model uses thrust vectoring to compensate for its lack of fully actuated control surfaces, as should be more readily evident from the video below. The canards are fixed.
In short, an RC model is a very poor indicator for the performance of the real thing.
Indianfighter
Junior Member
That is true. Absolute weight and size are a very important factor in manoueverability oher than just the aerodynamic shape itself. Small scale models can predict only handling and not necessarily the behavior of the actual production model.
Since J-10 has canards and appears to have sectional elevons, it would be very difficult to ascertain the movements of the control surfaces. Elevons do not move simultaneously and equally (unlike pairs of elevators and pairs of ailerons). This is what makes it difficult. Canards should be easier to manipulate because they always deflect equally and in sync.
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