That’s a very astute observation. I wonder what happened to the AL-31 equipped J-10Cs at Cangzhou. Did they swap out J-7s in a combat unit?
J-10 Thread IV
- Thread starter Jeff Head
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That’s a very astute observation. I wonder what happened to the AL-31 equipped J-10Cs at Cangzhou. Did they swap out J-7s in a combat unit?
Agreed, but maybe it was an exercise somewhere at a different location?
Since we spotted at least 20+ J-10C with WS-10 at CAC a few months ago and all of them are gone now, why not both Shantou and Cangzhou?
Afterburner flame is not necessarily indication of engine type. The recently released image of J-10C with Taihang engine shows bluish flames as well.
Color of afterburners can appear different to the naked eye due to various reasons ranging from the lighting (blue doesn't really stand out in daylight compared to orange/yellow) that the eye-brain can process, the colors the camera lens is capable of capturing given the conditions of when the photo was taken, effects of outside air temperature (chemistry 101 - burning gas molecules appear yellow-ish in colder temperatures and blue-ish at the higher spectrum, just like how a bunsen burner works), the stage of afterburner (no point going full hairblower on the takeoff roll with a jet that's light and end up VTOLing on rotation so to speak), the quality/grade of fuel used which ultimately affects combustion, a freshly operated engine tends to produce hotter exhaust vs when its the first flight of the day and the engine/fuel is still cold.... A myriad of reasons really, so quite frankly its damn near impossible to tell what engine is featured on the J-10 based on what color flames the afterburner produces.
Case and point here are photos of the Hornet in full hairblower, and afaik they only come in the GE F404 engine.
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The color of the afterburner exhaust is largely determined by the fuel-to-air ratio. Comparisons should be made under similar conditions (throttle level, altitude, fuel, etc.). Some of your pictures are taken during the flight and they cannot be compared with those at the takeoff. At the takeoff, the throttles are pushed to the maximum, and different engines exhibit distinct afterburner colors. Using the same fuel as other fighters in China, for example, the WS-9 engines on JH-7A have clearly reddish afterburner exhaust at the takeoff.Color of afterburners can appear different to the naked eye due to various reasons ranging from the lighting (blue doesn't really stand out in daylight compared to orange/yellow) that the eye-brain can process, the colors the camera lens is capable of capturing given the conditions of when the photo was taken, effects of outside air temperature (chemistry 101 - burning gas molecules appear yellow-ish in colder temperatures and blue-ish at the higher spectrum, just like how a bunsen burner works), the stage of afterburner (no point going full hairblower on the takeoff roll with a jet that's light and end up VTOLing on rotation so to speak), the quality/grade of fuel used which ultimately affects combustion, a freshly operated engine tends to produce hotter exhaust vs when its the first flight of the day and the engine/fuel is still cold.... A myriad of reasons really, so quite frankly its damn near impossible to tell what engine is featured on the J-10 based on what color flames the afterburner produces.
Case and point here are photos of the Hornet in full hairblower, and afaik they only come in the GE F404 engine.
View attachment 71964
A picture that was probably taken a little bit earlier of the same J-10C with a WS-10 engine taking off.
