Thank you, I was simply stating that last several generations of USN carrier aircraft were equipped with two engines, the current J-35 B and C are a significant departure from what has become "Cultural" and likely desirable to those who actually operate those aircraft. The exception to that has been the Sea Harrier and the AV8-B in which the safety has been an ongoing concern not neccessarily by their single engine but by their intended function, taking off and landing vertically. That "cultural ideal of redundancy is as old a the aviation community and seems to cross civilian and military boundaries. It is somewhat difficult to put an aircrafts performance in perspective without context and that context is provided by simular aircraft with similar missions. Thats why the USAF chose the F-16 and the USN chose to build the FA-18, which received a performance upgrade by the Canadian military, much as a previous generation F-86 did when placed in Canadian service. I must say that when piloting single engine aircraft at night, even light aircraft, the possibility of having to make an off airport landing at night is daunting indeed, the old joke being when you "turn on the landing light, if you don't like what you see, turn it back off". My real point, getting back on topic, is that the J-20, as you so eloquently stated earlier would not be the first choice to develop a carrier doctrine for the PLAN, and given the complexity and inherant danger of all carrier operations, the J-20 should likely remain the Air Superiority aircraft it has been designed to be from the beginning. Honestly I believe peace will be better maintained when we all have parity, and the mutual respect that comes from said parity. No disrespect intended or implied, aircraft seem to turn out best, when they have specific purpose in mind, the old engineers addage is "Form follows Function". In other words how it looks is dictated by its intended function. As we observe how the other guys do it, we sometimes have a clearer vision of how we ought to do it.
