J-35 carrier fighter (PLAN) thread

[Deino]

News circulating on the Chinese internet is that the new "350001" has new green-colored paint (IMO same as the J-15 prototype earlier this year), redesigned front fuselage that represent F-35, front-opening cockpit like the F-35, no (visible) refuel probe, no side weapon bays, no (visible) tail hook and ws-13 as the engine. (things in parenthesis are my personal annotations)

Personally I'm taking a pinch of saly on this, mainly because I can see absolutely no reason that SAC would go with the front-opening cockpit design...

I heard that too and this image was posted:



However IMO it is just the well known no. 31003 with the image slightly changing the grey colour from grey to a greenish-yellow. IMO this is never ever the J-35.

 

[Schwerter_]

I heard that too and this image was posted:

View attachment 78530

However IMO it is just the well known no. 31003 with the image slightly changing the grey colour from grey to a greenish-yellow. IMO this is never ever the J-35.

Agreed, we can even see the AVIC logo on the vertical tail xd

 

[Deino]

Agreed, we can even see the AVIC logo on the vertical tail xd

Indeed

 

[Gloire_bb]

Geez I hope not. VTOL means you lose most of your payload. Plus any VTOL aircraft will have way more accidents than a non-VTOL aircraft. The Harrier was notoriously accident prone for example. Helicopters also have much worse accident rates than fixed wing aircraft. Any engine trouble in vertical flight can lead to terrible consequences. Now that China is going to have EMALS why bother with VTOL?

A single engine aircraft with the WS-15 might make sense if Chinese engine reliability improves further but this is quite far from being a done deal. I think it makes more sense for J-10 replacement than a naval plane. Perhaps on a drone. That would be more effective.

I simply think it's a possible explanation of what's going on.
Of course, I am simply speculating here.

 

[Qian CDer]

J35!!!

 

[Schwerter_]

...okay here we go

I'm speechless

 

[siegecrossbow]

...okay here we go

I'm speechless

View attachment 78543

How do we tell that it is indeed the J-35 and not another FC-31 variant?

 

[Blitzo]

How do we tell that it is indeed the J-35 and not another FC-31 variant?

We can't, but if the photo is true, then the green primer, open landing gear, and chase plane all suggest it is a new prototype of something, which of course we all have to account with recent rumours of J-XY making its maiden flight in the last few weeks.

Unless of course you are joking, as the J-XY/J-35 *is* a variant of FC-31.

 

[Schwerter_]

How do we tell that it is indeed the J-35 and not another FC-31 variant?

what I find most convincing (other than the multitude of voices stating that it indeed is) is the color of the prototype. Barring the possibility that it's photoshoped, the green paint on the prototype is quite a strong indication that it has something to do with the sea, as the first time we've seen this color used as primer is on one of the newer J-15 naval fighters. Plus, no other plane other than the carrier-based J-15 has ever been seen using green primer (even the J-20S)

 

[Blitzo]

what I find most convincing (other than the multitude of voices stating that it indeed is) is the color of the prototype. Barring the possibility that it's photoshoped, the green paint on the prototype is quite a strong indication that it has something to do with the sea, as the first time we've seen this color used as primer is on one of the newer J-15 naval fighters. Plus, no other plane other than the carrier-based J-15 has ever been seen using green primer (even the J-20S)

I'm not sure if primer colour is necessarily decisive, because for all we know that may just be the primer colour that all recent SAC built aircraft use these days.
A good way to verify would be if we had any pictures within the last few years of J-16s under construction and their primer colour