J-20... The New Generation Fighter III

The argument the study was making was in regard to the advantage of the use of canards as the pitch control surfaces. In this context, it has to be referring to the horizontal tail planes and not the vertical tailplanes. What we're seeing in the above 2 examples are vertical stabilizers.

kwaigonegin said:

The X29 would disagree.

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Actually, the X-29 agrees as it uses canard and not tailplane.

kyanges said:

Isn't the Su-47 a FSW with tailplanes? Do they mean something more specific?

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The S-47 actually uses triplane configuration. So even though the aircraft has tailplane, the aircraft is not traditional configuration.

Engineer said:

Actually, the X-29 agrees as it uses canard and not tailplane.

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I think I know what you;re saying Engineer but you need to be clearer. When you say tailplane are you talking about the vertical stabilizers (rudder) or horizontal stabilizers (elevators)?
It seemed like you were talking about tailplane (vertical stabilizers) but was probably refering to elevators.

Engineer said:

The S-47 actually uses triplane configuration. So even though the aircraft has tailplane, the aircraft is not traditional configuration.

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Hi Eng, I think this discussion should be moved to the aerodynamics thread which was specifically created by seige in order that we might have these discussions without offending those who have no interest in the aerodynamic aspect of the J-20, while I love these discussions myself others who may not understand our concerns?

besides that I'm picking up a primary return of the fat pilot on my six! Has anyone confirmed that the latest aircraft photos are in fact 2003?

Of course the horizontal tail planes were ment. I suppose this concerns aircraft with supersonic capabilities. The first two aircraft with negative sweep, the Ju-287 experimental heavy jet bomber and the Hamburger Flugzeugbau HFB-320 Hansa Jet, had conventional horizontal tail planes.

2002 with a green radome and no pitot tube. PSed?

AssassinsMace said:

2002 with a green radome and no pitot tube. PSed?

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Hmmm ... IMO a FAKE !

Deino

This might be disappointing a bit.

Why would this be disappointing?

They would not have removed the pitot tube if they still needed it, that could give us a little insight into how far along the testing stage they have reached now. The fact that they were able to retrofit a radar (presumably with full avionics as well) into 2002 only reinforces my earlier point that the J20 prototypes are far more refined designs and much closer to the production model than the first X-Planes.

The fact that they decided to take 2002 offline for some time in order to effect this installation of the radar would also suggest that the 3rd prototype is some way off. Since there can be no question about funding or CAC's ability to build more prototypes if they so wished, I believe this might be an indication that significant changes are planned for 2003. Again, that is a good sign since the earlier such big changes are made, the less time it would take ultimately to certify the plane.

We all knew from the start that the J20 as it is is not the intended production model, and I am hopeful that 2003 may see the introduction of a new stealthy nozzle design, or maybe even Ws15s, although admittedly, the later is a bit of a long shot since we have heard so little about the WS15 thus far.