J-20... The New Generation Fighter II

siegecrossbow said:

If those were true it would mean that Chinese technology is far more advanced than even us "fan boys" have imagined. Even on the F-22 you could easily discern the cracks where the weapons bays are... perhaps there are some truth, after all, to the rumor that the J-20's airframe is fashioned out of some sort of advanced composite radar absorbing material.

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Or simply because it wasn't there at all in the first place. It was a prototype, and the Chinese might just want to test the flight performance of this type of aircraft, being the first by the Chinese.

rhino123 said:

Or simply because it wasn't there at all in the first place. It was a prototype, and the Chinese might just want to test the flight performance of this type of aircraft, being the first by the Chinese.

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The F-22s are being built in a factory, the J-20 is a prototype...it is hand built. Therefore the quality is likely to be a bit better than we will see in production. I could be wrong though.

siegecrossbow said:

If those were true it would mean that Chinese technology is far more advanced than even us "fan boys" have imagined. Even on the F-22 you could easily discern the cracks where the weapons bays are... perhaps there are some truth, after all, to the rumor that the J-20's airframe is fashioned out of some sort of advanced composite radar absorbing material.

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It doesn't have to be RAM which makes the weapon bay lineshard to see -- it could be some sort of seal between the flaps for some other LO use, but has the side effect of making the junctions hard to see.

Then again it could be photoshop, to rub out the lines but I'm not sure why anyone would want to do that, and there'd be original photos floating around somewhere which we'd pick up on quite fast.

rhino123 said:

Or simply because it wasn't there at all in the first place. It was a prototype, and the Chinese might just want to test the flight performance of this type of aircraft, being the first by the Chinese.

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Maybe -- it's very possible they just had a placeholder there instead -- but a weapons bay isn't exactly hard to design or make, it's not very different to a landing gear door.

Centrist said:

The F-22s are being built in a factory, the J-20 is a prototype...it is hand built. Therefore the quality is likely to be a bit better than we will see in production. I could be wrong though.

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Actually I'd think production aircraft would have better quality than the prototype because it's all done in a smooth step by step process, probalby with more machine support.

I know. That's why I said "If those were true".

siegecrossbow said:

I know. That's why I said "If those were true".

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If what were true?
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Pictures courtesy of madrat of key forusm, btw.

Isn't RAM paint expensive? If they painted RAM then you would think the bay doors would have to be there to the point of testing its stealthiness. Why paint it if they weren't going to do that?

I am also wondering... are we missing something? Would it be possible that the bays might be differently designed as compared to F22. In a sense, it might be 'overlapping' and if the dimension of the overlap is significant, then it would be more difficult to notice. coupled with the photo being taken at certain angle and lighting, we might not even see the bay.

rhino123 said:

I am also wondering... are we missing something? Would it be possible that the bays might be differently designed as compared to F22. In a sense, it might be 'overlapping' and if the dimension of the overlap is significant, then it would be more difficult to notice. coupled with the photo being taken at certain angle and lighting, we might not even see the bay.

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Yup. I was curious thats why I PS the J-20 & F-22 side by side... Maybe you are right but another reason could be it is painted black for the J-20 so others cant see it. Keep guessing

Centrist said:

The F-22s are being built in a factory, the J-20 is a prototype...it is hand built. Therefore the quality is likely to be a bit better than we will see in production. I could be wrong though.

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Aircraft are built using molds to form the parts and rigs to assemble those parts. Those molds and rigs for production aircraft have been designed with more care and less hurry and will be better.
Just a 72 year old anecdote: Sir Stanley Hooker tells in his autobiography ( Not much of an Engineer ) that he talked, as a Rolls Royce engineer, with people of the Ford motor car engine producers about them producing Merlin engines. They told him, that they didn't use use the precisions he mentioned. He then supposed, that they used less precision. But it transpired they worked with more precision to save on the cost of assembly of the engines.

@ media hype and "strange reports"

Sometimes I have the feeling, that these strange ongoing discussions, that media-hype and these sometimes - or better to say in most cases - more than stupid repoorts in serveral news-agencies and so on was the main interest behind the "unveiling" of the J-20.

Now the guys at CAC can go back to work and those from the PLAAF can sit down and will always have a good laugth about some posts.


Deino


PS: maybe the same is for that I did to be published in the next Combat Aircraft issue (so ... hope You like it but critics wellcome)