Yup. Also, WS-10 equipped J-20 has entered serial production according to the wall climbers.
J-20 5th Gen Fighter Thread VI
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Yup. Also, WS-10 equipped J-20 has entered serial production according to the wall climbers.
oh my, now that's more like it!
If JacKsonbobo says so, I think it is like a confirmation and he surely has even high resolution images.
If JacKsonbobo says so, I think it is like a confirmation and he surely has even high resolution images.
View attachment 53112
We know for a fact that:
1) J-20 2021 and 2022 have test flown with a WS-10 variant since 2017.
2) Liming reported that they produced several hundred Taihang engines. J-16 and J-11B alone couldn’t consume all of the new engines.
I suspect that we haven’t seen mass production of J-20s because they were waiting for the domestic stopgag to be ready. The bad news is that the WS-15 might be an even longer wait.
Hopefully not, but now that a self-reliance milestone has been reached I worry that pressure might ease and project leaders might say "well, let's see if we can't use a better alloy/run a few more tests/take a long overdue vacation". The J-20 is still being shortchanged by an inferior engine, whether that engine is Russian or Chinese is secondary, if that.
On the other hand we've heard no indication from anyone reputable that the WS-15 is in difficulty, so one can be optimistic that this development won't have much effect on the WS-15's production and adoption.
Why would that matter? Is this WS-10 variant significantly better than the AL-31F the J-20 is currently flying with? Has there been any problem or uncertainty with Russian supply?
If the J-20 is shifting over to WS-10s then the current J-20 production run ran with the AL-31s for two-three years before switching over. Given that the production turnaround for the switch was pretty short, I don’t think the J-20 switching to WS-10s tells us much about when the WS-15 will become available.
Wish them good luck with domestic engines. Please please don't crash!
They've been producing Flankers for years with domestic engines.
The last time WS-10 had serious issues was around 2009. Since then around two to three hundred combat aircraft have entered service with Taihangs without major problems. WS-10 equipped J-11Bs not only emerged victorious from several Golden Helmets exercises but also were involved in high profile interceptions of foreign aircraft in the South and East China Seas. If they didn't trust the WS-10, they wouldn't have allowed the J-10B TVC to perform at Zhuhai last November.
absolutely, and I'm extremely happy to see them on the J-20!
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