The dimensions of the intakes may not change but don't you expect with certainty DSI and serpentine duct to change?
J-20 5th Generation Fighter VII
- Thread starter siegecrossbow
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Assuming they have flown a J-20 with TVC WS-10s (and not WS-15s, which of course we all expect to have TVC)... well there's only a few possibilities.
1. J-20 with TVC WS-10s is only for testing purposes. The benefits of doing so for testing purposes is of course quite obvious. From Zhuhai 2018 we already received hints that J-20 may have been tested with a TVC WS-10, and if so, perhaps back then they only had J-20 in testing with one TVC WS-10 and what they recently flew was equipped with two TVC WS-10s, offering additional testing benefits.
2. J-20 with TVC WS-10s is meant to enter production. Such an aircraft would likely supersede the current J-20As produced with standard WS-10Cs, and aim to form a further interim between WS-10C equipped J-20As and WS-15 equipped J-20As.
There are arguments for and against both of these possibilities, but the important point IMO is that there's nothing which can definitively prove either as being beyond the pale.
Meaning basically anything of the below is possible:
1. Recently J-20 flew with one TVC WS-10
2. Recently J-20 flew with two TVC WS-10
3. Recently J-20 flew with one WS-15 (naturally, with TVC)
4. Recently J-20 flew with two WS-15 (naturally, with TVC)
5. Recently nothing happened with J-20 and engines
When I say "dimensions of intakes" I mean everything -- the DSI, the serpentine duct, the entire structure of the air intake from where the leading lip meets the air to where the duct joins the engines.
I remain unsure if they had designed and built all current J-20s with the entire air intake/duct structure to fit WS-15 from the outset, or whether the air intake/duct at present is designed around WS-10s and will require redesign for WS-15.
I wouldn't be surprised if the latter was true -- but I wouldn't also rule out the former.
With J-10's public TVC demonstration done in 2018, it is only obvious that WS-10 TVC variant has been in development for sometime before 2018 for it to have been so confidently disclosed in public by 2018 with actual testing and any amendments no doubt done much earlier. There's no doubt that TVC on WS-10 would have been on the designers agenda since the programs inception in the 1990s.
There have been too much hinting that J-10 and J-20 have both been "playing around" with non-publicly disclosed engines (back in the 2017 to 2018 period).
The J-10C have been produced with WS-10 engines for nearly a year. The J-20A comfortably using some variant of WS-10 with J-20 exclusive nozzles for some months. If we assume that the J-20 is intended to be mated with a TVC engine in the way the J-10 never was/is, the WS-15 is clearly distant enough to go with WS-10C model. The WS-10 TVC variant clearly isn't a completed product ready for service and/or sacrifices too much thrust to be applied on J-20 if it is a fully ready for service development. Since it doesn't have an end user, it makes no sense to ensure it is service level product anyway.
There have been too much hinting that J-10 and J-20 have both been "playing around" with non-publicly disclosed engines (back in the 2017 to 2018 period).
The J-10C have been produced with WS-10 engines for nearly a year. The J-20A comfortably using some variant of WS-10 with J-20 exclusive nozzles for some months. If we assume that the J-20 is intended to be mated with a TVC engine in the way the J-10 never was/is, the WS-15 is clearly distant enough to go with WS-10C model. The WS-10 TVC variant clearly isn't a completed product ready for service and/or sacrifices too much thrust to be applied on J-20 if it is a fully ready for service development. Since it doesn't have an end user, it makes no sense to ensure it is service level product anyway.
Just regarding the bold part, you are actually a bit behind.
The first J-10Cs produced with WS-10Bs were seen in mid 2019 at Chengdu -- nearly two years ago.
The first J-20A powered by WS-10Cs flew in late 2017 (four years ago), and we first had pictures of it J-20As powered by WS-10Cs in production was from mid-late 2019 in Chengdu -- again, nearly two years ago.
Of course, none of this has any bearing of whether TVC WS-10s fitted onto J-20s means it is for testing vs intended for production, because neither possibility is beyond the pale.
The idea that "WS-15 is distant enough to go with WS-10C model" instead of a TVC WS-10 variant, assumes that:
- when WS-10C was ready for J-20, a mature and production ready TVC WS-10 variant was also ready for J-20
- that a mature and production TVC WS-10 variant suffers from sacrifices (such as thrust) compared to WS-10C, and therefore will not be considered for a run of production J-20s
I don't think we have enough information to rule out either of those possibilities.
In other words, if J-20 recently flew with a TVC WS-10, we can't rule out whether it was for testing purposes or for lead up to production purposes.
That is why, IMO at this stage, all of the below possibilities that I wrote before, have to be considered as plausible and none yet can be ruled out:
1. Recently J-20 flew with one TVC WS-10
2. Recently J-20 flew with two TVC WS-10
3. Recently J-20 flew with one WS-15 (naturally, with TVC)
4. Recently J-20 flew with two WS-15 (naturally, with TVC)
5. Recently nothing happened with J-20 and engines
The “complete form aircraft” has been proven to be the KJ-600, even by the initial leaker.
Could you provide link of that video?, sounds interesting
Sorry,I can’t find this image ,but this is the real thing,there was a image in which this nozzle was fitted into a J-8 model,I don’t know if it had ever flew or not
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5BA32105-5EE2-4BEB-AA55-59E668FB0669.jpeg
The tieba picture shows that the J-20 is equipped with two different engines and is being tested.
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