J-20... The New Generation Fighter II

vesicles said:

I actually think this exact plane has flewn with the domestic engine. I don't think the Chinese govn't would actually risk anything when they expect the world is watching. So I believe this plane has not only flewn before, but flew multiple times. It has flewn enough times and performed well enough to give the leadership the confidence to let it go public like this.

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Cpt_Underpants said:

Over fielding F-22's will only end up costing the country more money. Not only to make them but also to maintain them. They are kind of flawed too if you ask me. For every hour it stays up in the sky it will require at least 14 hours of maintenance to ensure that it is optimal for its next operation.

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Engineer said:

But that doesn't make sense either. It would have been impossible to keep the aircraft from public's eyes, considering the Chengdu airfield is in the middle of the city, and right beside residential complexes as you can see in the pictures.

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pla101prc said:

uhhhh there's gonna be a lot of obstacles leading to something like that unless there is some serious friction between China and the US that gives the alarmists a good reason to make talk up the notion of China as the next USSR. cuz obama threatened to veto any bill that authorizes funding for addtional 22s. and even so its a GOP house and democrat senate...putting in a bill like this means obama loses either way...you are either weak or you dont care about debt lol. i wouldnt do it if i were obama,unless there are very good reasons like 9/11 style.

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Subedei said:

Now, now, I didn't want to rub it in too much!!!

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Engineer said:

But that doesn't make sense either. It would have been impossible to keep the aircraft from public's eyes, considering the Chengdu airfield is in the middle of the city, and right beside residential complexes as you can see in the pictures.

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vesicles said:

they don't have to test it in chengdu. They must have secret bases in the middle of nowhere somewhere. I wouldn't expect China to have its ONLY airfiled for testing highly sensitive planes built in the middle of a city.

People have been speculating that the Chinese govn't wanted this to go public simply because they chose this particular airfield.

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Engineer said:

Assuming the aircraft is assembled in Chengdu, its first flight must be in Chengdu's airfield as well. And there's no way the first flight would take place at night... simply too risky.

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Kanwa Asian Defense magazine editor Andrei Chang said the J-20 flew for about 15 minutes over an airfield in the southwestern city of Chengdu where it was spotted carrying out runway tests last week. Photos of the plane in flight were also posted on unofficial Chinese military websites.

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