J-20 5th Gen Fighter Thread VIII
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
Airframe 2055. I'm leaning toward the image being legit, but there is something odd with the starboard nozzle (image quality too low to tell for sure).
Where did you get this?
Airframe 2055. I'm leaning toward the image being legit, but there is something odd with the starboard nozzle (image quality too low to tell for sure).
hmm??? Point is, we have seen a similar image exactly twice with both numbers 2052 & 2055 already before! And a few weeks ago no. 2055 was rated fake too …
Is there anything new in the video.
I'm not saying this picture is real, but I'm not sure what you're talking about??
A few weeks ago we had the same image twice with 2052 and 2055 (the latter likely being doctored), here as yourself and others discussed at the time:
J-20 5th Gen Fighter Thread VIII
More reassurance... Good to hear. Thanks for that. another point to be noted.. PLAAF is very happy with WS-10C engine performance. this is one of the reasons why CAS producing 80-100 units annually. WS-10C is early WS-15 equivalent engine. Liming incorporate many latest components and...
www.sinodefenceforum.com
However what has that got to do with this new image?
That is to say, if we want to argue this new image is fake, then we need to first identify an original undoctored image first.
To be clear, it's very possible this new image of "2055" is also doctored (for example, it may be an unreleased image of a past 205X prototype that was doctored to make the last digit into a 5), and unless there is corroboration from credible individuals that this image is legitimate then we should continue being vigilant.
But I also don't think "we had recent doctored images depicting 2055, therefore we should assume this new image of 2055 is also doctored" makes sense. What we should be doing is to see if we can find an original image of 205X that may have been a plausible base image for it to be doctored into.
by78
General
Looking at that account's posting history I would be surprised if they would be the first to post a genuine image of 2055 to be honest, as there's nothing in their posting history suggesting they would have first access to that kind of imagery.
(The account seems to be mostly CGI art made by themselves).
Then there's random odd stuff like this thing that I've never seen before (?a submarine? with ?odd x tail and enclosed propulsor that looks suspiciously too sci fi??) which I'm sure if it was genuine would have actually kicked up a bit of a fuss among us and noticed by us... so I'm tempted to err on the side of that 2055 picture being "not legit".
Then there's random odd stuff like this thing that I've never seen before (?a submarine? with ?odd x tail and enclosed propulsor that looks suspiciously too sci fi??) which I'm sure if it was genuine would have actually kicked up a bit of a fuss among us and noticed by us... so I'm tempted to err on the side of that 2055 picture being "not legit".
That "submarine with X-tail and enclosed propulsor" is definitely a fake one.
Or to be more specific - A movie prop set.
That submarine prop is located at Sunac Movie Metropolis at Qingdao.
Comparing the yellow building and the arch structure in the foreground to Baidu Street View and street-level photo of the entrance to the compound:
(Also the hill in the far background)
Courtesy of Big Bun for pointing this out. He also pointed out several other features that doesn't fit what a supposedly "real" submarine and a supposedly "real" sub-building shipyard are missing and done wrong in that location.
by78
General
Looking at that account's posting history I would be surprised if they would be the first to post a genuine image of 2055 to be honest, as there's nothing in their posting history suggesting they would have first access to that kind of imagery.
(The account seems to be mostly CGI art made by themselves).
Then there's random odd stuff like this thing that I've never seen before (?a submarine? with ?odd x tail and enclosed propulsor that looks suspiciously too sci fi??) which I'm sure if it was genuine would have actually kicked up a bit of a fuss among us and noticed by us... so I'm tempted to err on the side of that 2055 picture being "not legit".
That account mostly contains two types of posts: 1) image aggregation from various Chinese social media sources, some of which are inaccessible to observers outside China; 2) self-authored CGI images, which are usually clearly labelled as such (个人原创).
The J-20 image in question is from the former category and I believe shows a J-20A airframe that has never been seen before in its entirety, which is of some value, even if the airframe number has been doctored. I was of course cognizant of the fact that the poster is a CG artist and therefore the image deserved extra scrutiny.
So, after staring at it for a long while, having examined the lighting, the shadows, and the textures at various magnifications, the airframe itself does appear to be a genuine article to my eyes, except for the previously mentioned suspicious looking area around the starboard nozzle, which could be a compression artifact or be attributed something else innocuous.
The submarine image is from a theme park and taken by the poster from another Weibo account as part of his routine image aggregation. Mind you, I don't treat him as an expert or insider, but merely as a useful source for images that I otherwise have no access to. I apply my own filter and judgement on what images are genuine and should be shared and what aren't and shouldn't. Case in point, these images of 2052 also came from the same account.
Last edited:
I agree with the categorization of the two types of posts made from that account, and I agree in theory that the J-20 2055 image is from category 1).
But category 1) does not actually indicate whether an image is genuine or not, they are just images that the account thinks is real.
Putting it another way, the issue isn't that I suspect the specific account had doctored the 2055 image, but rather whether the account had unknowingly posted a doctored image (or an image of unknown quality, for example that "submarine" image which is from the same post).
That in turn feeds into the question of why this account would be the first to post a genuine photo of 2055 on weibo to begin with. The scrutiny isn't about the account being a CGI artist, but rather the scrutiny is whether this person has a track record for being the first to release new aircraft imagery, and if they don't have a track record then why are we seeing it from them now.
Visually speaking, it is basically impossible to tell if the image is doctored or not given the quality of the image and the relative ease of doctoring it (for example, someone could have taken a genuine unreleased image of 2052 and changed the number to 2055 and that weibo account and us would be none the wiser and it wouldn't show much artefact).
That said, the idea of there being a J-20A prototype 2055 existing and flying is not at all unreasonable. But the circumstances of this image's release is a bit suspicious and is coming from an avenue that we do not usually expect.