You may well be right air, I really was expecting 2003 right after the New Year, but as with almost everything on Sino Defense, many of our posts are heavy on conjecture, and as long as people are basing their conjecture on reality, sometimes we come out ahead of the pack as there are many astute observers of Chinese past practices here on the forum.. Fighter Aircraft are dependant on many things, 1. Most important is likely need or perceived need, 2. Resources-the ability to fund, design, build, and deploy, and all those things must meld together, 3. The will to build and pay for that particular aircraft system, and that depends on budgets (ie-sequester???) and politics, and that means leaders who have a will to defend and protect a nation, and the foresight to prepare for future threats.
So to build a clean sheet aeroplane such as the J-20 all the planets have to line up so to speak, the J-20 is an even money or better bet to evolve into a production deployable aircraft, the J-31 on the other hand appears to be behind the 8 ball right now, and at this stage I would call it a company demonstrator. brat
