J-20 5th Generation Fighter VII
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The biggest benefit of the DSI I think it's weight saving and cost saving. Stealth fighters don't go that fast anyways because of Ram at the moment so it makes sense.
by78
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That's a cropped and compressed version of a very old image that had already been posted in much higher quality.
Thanks for information.
Performing maintenance checks on (serrated) engine nozzles.
Read from Weibo that these are from Dingxin AFB, so they've started transitioning to WS-10C equipped J-20 as well. We actually had indirect validation of this last year from one of the interviews in which Chen Liu commented on adapting to new, improved engines.
Does anyone know if the PLAAF has started MLU for its J-20s yet (is there any timeline)?
Also, will the upcoming MLU see the old J-20s switching engines to WS-10C or will they prefer to keep them with their existing engines and put the new engines to new airframes instead
Also, will the upcoming MLU see the old J-20s switching engines to WS-10C or will they prefer to keep them with their existing engines and put the new engines to new airframes instead
I don’t think we’ve see engine swaps but they are definitely upgrades done beneath the hoood. In fact we’ve seen J-20 in ETC which has the two-strip formation lights and retractable luneburg lens seen on later model J-20, but they’ve kept the AL-31 engine.
I think that depends on the lifetime of the engine. If the AL-31F reaches the end of its service life at the MLU, it will almost certainly be replaced by WS-10C. If not, I think the original engine will be retained.
Yes, I was also thinking about if it was worth to allocate the much in demand WS-10C engines to older J-20 aircraft (and probably restricting production of new J-20) when they could be used for new J-20 instead
But this could also depend on how much electricity/power future J-20 updates will need and if their AL-31F engines could supply that demand.
Knowing that, my next question would be if we have data on how much electricity is generated by the AL-31F and WS-10C engines
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