J-20 5th Generation Fighter VII

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Zichan

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Tirdent said:
On the other hand, virtually no space is left empty inside a modern 5th generation fighter - even if you are adding volume for primarily aerodynamic reasons, you will be taking advantage of it for other purposes.

Since its fuselage packaging is virtually the same, the F-22 offers a reasonable clue on the J-20 fuel tank configuration, and that indicates there should indeed be a tank there. There's another reason fuel capacity is the most likely use of the additional volume: fuel is the only component that is "malleable" in shape and scales continuously. As you say, electronics have a limited ability to conform to an aerodynamically determined shape, and you'd have to wonder what the original J-20 was even lacking in the avionics department. Is a seventh MAWS sensor (for instance) really sensible, when the six on the base model already provide full spherical coverage?

The one scenario where I can see the volume being used for electronics is if it is occupied by boxes displaced from elsewhere on the airframe by a new piece of (non-avionics) equipment. Say, this new variant gets a gun, and something which originally sat where the gun now is located was moved into the spine.

Like fuel, more weapons would obviously also be always welcome, but missile payload scales in discrete increments and has a fixed geometry. Additionally, the spine adds the most volume well forward of the weapons bay, approximately above the nose gear well. To gain meaningful bay depth, you'd have to move the intake ducts (which curve inward to almost meet on the centreline over the bay) and I just don't see enough new volume in that place for this to happen.

TL,DR: the spine is not going to be empty, and fuel is by far the most likely thing to occupy the additional space.
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Should there be another clue to confirm the fuel tank hypothesis? The extra weight will shift the center of gravity. Will that necessitate a modification in the lift profile of the aircraft?
 
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Atomicfrog

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Zichan said:
Should there be another clue to confirm the fuel tank hypothesis? The extra weight will shift the center of gravity. Will that necessitate a modification in the lift profile of the aircraft?
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If they change to the WS-15, they will need to make some adjustment for engine weight. If the WS_15 are heavier, extra fuel tank at the front could help to balance them at gross weight. They have a lot to test with these modifications, don't know if we will see dead ends for some developments in the future on that platform.
 
Blitzo

Blitzo

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pesoleati said:
It is a shame on you to post such personal attack. Please have a discussion instead of high school girl fight. Calling the managing members to step up and do your job to maintain the quality of the post
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Hi, one of the supermoderators here.

ACuriousPLAFanis not wrong in calling @louischeung_hk an idiot sandwich.

To put it more specifically, louischeung_hk is an actively distracting, dishonest reposter of materials that are often doctored or false without identifying them as such, this making the job of the rest of us much more difficult.
He is barely two steps away from being considered an active spreader of misinformation.
And this is despite multiple people telling him to take more care as to what he's posting, which he never responds well with, and seems only interested in chasing clout and growing a follower count regardless of the mess and damage he makes for PLA watching.

So perhaps "idiot sandwich" is a bit too light.

"A despicable shame to PLA watching" might be a better description for him.
There is a reason why his tweets when posted here are often automatically deleted by us and we actively dissuade his content from being posted here.

It is actively useful for us to share the knowledge that Louischeung_hk is a waste of time and should be avoided, so new members will be aware of this and won't make mistakes in perceiving him as a useful source.
 
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