YJ-91 do an impressive rocket plume behind from the solid fuel rocket booster when launching. It probably help the fighter to get away from that.
J-10 Thread IV
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
lcloo
Captain
Air-to-ground missiles are usually mounted on aircraft wings in a tilted position to reduce the aerodynamic drag and improve the aircraft’s performance. The tilt angle is determined by the missile’s weight, size, and shape, as well as the aircraft’s speed and altitude. The missiles are also mounted in a way that minimizes the aerodynamic interference with the aircraft.
This applies to all aircraft and all missiles regardless of which air force or countries.
Tanzania
It's actually more to do with take-off clearance since the YJ-91 is slung rather low on a J-10 which is exacerbated by the missile's large diameter such that if were mounted straight the tail end of it would scrape the runway at take-off (and landing).
Here's the high-wing JH-7 with the same missile but mounted straight -
And here's the Kh-31 on a Flanker mounted underneath the engine bay hardpoint, also tilted like on the J-10 -
Yet straight when wing-mounted -
Interesting, actually Yankee & Shilao in the latest podcast mentioned the 1st J-10 operator in Africa likely will be a small country no one expect.
I would think Algeria is a likely buyer to replace its MiG29s.
Give J-10CE to all the countries, more chances of me flying it in DCS this way 
