J-20... The New Generation Fighter II

Hey guys.. When will this aircraft fly again? That's the $100,000,000 yuan question. When will we see a real test flight? Not some fly by with the wheels down at sub-sonic speeds.. When will we see the first regiments?? When? Betcha it does not fly before September this year.

I wonder if those paints and synthetic lamination used on J20 has any ties to those on the Type 022 catamarans. Not sure if those ships even have stealth paints on them, they look like ordinary paint to me. If they are synthetic radar wave absorbent materials, are they related to the J20?

pugachev_diver said:

I wonder if those paints and synthetic lamination used on J20 has any ties to those on the Type 022 catamarans. Not sure if those ships even have stealth paints on them, they look like ordinary paint to me. If they are synthetic radar wave absorbent materials, are they related to the J20?

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I though it might tie with the rumour that the paint was from the scrape of plane found by china during the Yugoslavia war.

bd popeye said:

Hey guys.. When will this aircraft fly again? That's the $100,000,000 yuan question. When will we see a real test flight? Not some fly by with the wheels down at sub-sonic speeds.. When will we see the first regiments??

Click to expand...

We will probably not see a real test flight for a while, but then again we've never really seen pictures of real "test flights" before unless they were released by the PLA (like when the J-10 was officially declassified). We only have some relatively low altitude pictures of the J-10B, so the best we can hope for is that someone will catch a good glimpse of J-20 when it takes off or lands for trials and tests.
Besides there's almost definitely more than one flying prototype and I expect one is in a remote airbase in Western china right now, while the other's at Chengdu for whatever reasons the engineers need it to be there for.

When? Betcha it does not fly before September this year.

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What makes you think that?

pugachev_diver said:

I wonder if those paints and synthetic lamination used on J20 has any ties to those on the Type 022 catamarans. Not sure if those ships even have stealth paints on them, they look like ordinary paint to me. If they are synthetic radar wave absorbent materials, are they related to the J20?

Click to expand...

Interesting, I didn't know you could tell whether something has RAM paint or not...

It's impossible to tell to whether 022's RAM has any relation to J-20s... or to 052Cs, J-10Bs, WZ-10s, whatever... Besides, how do you tell whether RAM is similar anyway?

KingLouis said:

I though it might tie with the rumour that the paint was from the scrape of plane found by china during the Yugoslavia war.

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Doubtful. I mean the rumor that they got a piece of the F-117 was a bit dubious in the first place, and even if they had acquired pieces that was 70s technology... It would be stupid to use F-117 derived RAM on a 5th generation fighter meant to compete with F-22, and why wouldn't they put in the effort to develop and apply their own materials sciences anyway? They're doing it in all the other fields.
I have a sneaking suspicion this F-117 RAM theory will soon become to the J-20 what the Lavi was to the J-10... Not very well thought out.

There's a few photos on this link supposedly dated as 12 04 2011 (I can't be bothered dling them to put up and I dont' know how to insert them on SDF without their urls)


Looks like it's prototype 2001... If we get a shot of the rear end I'd bet it's the one with Al-31 engines.

Bltizo said:

We will probably not see a real test flight for a while, but then again we've never really seen pictures of real "test flights" before unless they were released by the PLA (like when the J-10 was officially declassified). We only have some relatively low altitude pictures of the J-10B, so the best we can hope for is that someone will catch a good glimpse of J-20 when it takes off or lands for trials and tests.
Besides there's almost definitely more than one flying prototype and I expect one is in a remote airbase in Western china right now, while the other's at Chengdu for whatever reasons the engineers need it to be there for.



What makes you think that?



Interesting, I didn't know you could tell whether something has RAM paint or not...

It's impossible to tell to whether 022's RAM has any relation to J-20s... or to 052Cs, J-10Bs, WZ-10s, whatever... Besides, how do you tell whether RAM is similar anyway?



Doubtful. I mean the rumor that they got a piece of the F-117 was a bit dubious in the first place, and even if they had acquired pieces that was 70s technology... It would be stupid to use F-117 derived RAM on a 5th generation fighter meant to compete with F-22, and why wouldn't they put in the effort to develop and apply their own materials sciences anyway? They're doing it in all the other fields.
I have a sneaking suspicion this F-117 RAM theory will soon become to the J-20 what the Lavi was to the J-10... Not very well thought out.

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Some rumor says J-20's RAM is waterproof, while F-22's isn't.

MiG-29 said:

The F-16, Su-27 and F-22 are unstable longitudinally, this means the center of lift is ahead of the center of gravity.
By using canards most modern fighters are near neutral position, so in few words they are more stable than unstable.
Are the Eurofighter or Gripen unstable? definitively yes, but are near neutral while the Su-27 or F-16 having aft tails can be given higher levels of unstability.
An unstable aircraft with canards kills lift in order to trim, however it has a relatively quick pitch up force making for excellent instantaneous turn rates, the IAI Lavi improved and bettered the F-16`s instantaneous turn rate.

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Interesting pictures. F-22's lift center is too close to the leading edge of wings.

s7s7s7 said:

Some rumor says J-20's RAM is waterproof, while F-22's isn't.

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Those rumours are pure BS. How could the RAM be not waterproof. Afterall, one of the biggest thing in aircraft is water, water condensation, etc. So if F-22 RAM is not waterproof, after awhile of flying, the RAM would loose its capability and reveal the F-22 to enemy's radar.

pugachev_diver said:

I wonder if those paints and synthetic lamination used on J20 has any ties to those on the Type 022 catamarans. Not sure if those ships even have stealth paints on them, they look like ordinary paint to me. If they are synthetic radar wave absorbent materials, are they related to the J20?

Click to expand...

In any case, I'm thinking why they would test RAM material so early in the prototype flight testing phase, considering RAM material can always be tested on a non flying prototype. Otoh, the "paint" seems too thick to be just a layer of thick paint. Unless, the flight testing phase is really not that early as some of us would think and has already moved further along.

I highly doubt that they used RAM on those flight tests. It'll be a waste of money as the RAM will erode (unless that BS about water-proof RAM is proven true).