Disappointing, the WS-15 was apparently being trialed on the J-20 two years back after the new nozzle had been tested on the J-10B platform. If it takes this long to get to a first flight of the WS-15 engine / nozzle, it suggests a great lateness in development processes.
J-20 5th Generation Fighter VII
- Thread starter siegecrossbow
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Judging the cartoon - With only one WS-15. The other seems to be one without serrated edges.
Well? So did I hit or miss on the inlet modification speculation?
Unfortunately, researching what happened with the DSI inlets, it seems as though the inlets saw significant modification during the WS-10 / AL-31 stage. This was apparently because of difficulties in optimizing the inlets for the WS-10 / AL-31.
This implies that either two things are possible:
One: the Chinese had tremendous difficulty optimizing both for the stealthiness of the J-20 and the full flight envelope of the J-20. The F-35, in contrast, doesn't need its DSI inlet to exceed Mach 1.6, whereas the J-20 is expected to fly at least to Mach 1.8 and perhaps to Mach 2.4. This implies that without substantial inlet modification (and I'm not saying it'll happen, in fact, I'd find it unlikely), the J-20 cannot extract the full potential of the WS-15.
Two: the J-20 inlets were originally designed for the WS-15, and were then back-engineered to support the Al-31 and WS-10. That's where all the trouble came from; if the WS-15 (and this is likely) required more airflow than the Al-31 and WS-10, the Al-31 and WS-10 would then see excess airflow from a fixed (in the sense that there are no moving parts in the DSI) inlet.
I'd prefer the second scenario to be true, but it's questionable as to how effective reducing the DSI bump might be in fulfilling the WS-15's capability. The bump's job is to get boundary layer air to flow away from the inlet. A large bump implies greater effectiveness in doing so. Shrinking the bump to increase airflow would reduce the effectiveness of the DSI at lower speeds.
2025. Although we'd see the WS-15 appear early. I thought the consensus in the forum was that it won't be mass equipped before 2025
Hendrik_2000
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There is no confirmation that WS 15 was trialed 2 years ago. Just rumor make sense since the successful blade improvement does not come into picture until last year So how can it be ready 2 years ago?
You have been criticizing china engine development for no reason. GT Engine development is one of the most difficult program. It takes time. No one will help you on this one as no company will part with their crown jewel technology. Progress is always slow but China did make a progress. We see WS 10C on J10C, We see WS 20 is now trialed on Y 20. Now we had this news
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That is way too optimistic. Personally I’d be happy if they mass equip WS-15 by 2030. Turbofans are very hard to master.
it's correct. Metallurgical technology and materials science are the most sensitive data and are not shared with any country, whether it is an ally or a brother country.
Of course, to a certain extent, money will come into play. If China is willing to spend 10-20 billion USD to buy AL-41F or PD-14 technology, I believe the possibility of Russia selling all the technology to China is very high, but it will not happen.
That is too pessimistic. 2025 seems a more realistic date.
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