More. J-20 didn’t enter trial service till 2017. These birds are going straight to Dingxin afterwards.
J-35A fighter (PLAAF) + FC-31 thread
- Thread starter ACuriousPLAFan
- Start date
More. J-20 didn’t enter trial service till 2017. These birds are going straight to Dingxin afterwards.
Holy crap, that is wild and awesome.
Real legacy of the Pelosi visit. Everything has been fast tracked.
lcloo
Captain
Will be great if they start to practice landings on Lioning and Shandong in H1 2025. Or on Fujian air operation trials if they want to send a political message to some one.
Shandong will need to undergo some retrofit works to enable J-35 operations. The wheel chocks presently on Shandong are the same as the older and narrower ones on Liaoning prior to the latter's MLU.
Liaoning, meanwhile, can start having J-35s anytime (hopefully very soon).
Just a probably rather obvious thought: some rumours suggest that the particular J-35A they publically shown just then will join service immediately after the airshow, but I doubt it.
It doesn't have EODAS windows, nor a complete EOTS. Same with the 2051 prototype.
Hence, that specific airframe is probably the J-35A's equivalent of the 2051, i.e. a relatively early, rough prototype. The production models may even have a noticeable improvement on the build quality in general.
Oh Liaoning already changed the wheel chocks? Do you have a picture? I couldn't tell when I checked with Liaoning's dual carrier op pics
But please explain HOW!
We know the first true J-35A made its maiden flight only in September 2023, so even if surely a lot was done by testing the FC-31V2 demonstrator and the naval J-35s, it seems to me impossible to have a fifth generation fighter ready for OPEVAL and delivered to units after only a bit more than 14 months!!
What am I missing??
The dedication of the SAC engineers and their willingness to do OT, maybe. /s
In a serious note, I believe the majority of the work is already cut out for them to make the J-35 land-based. It is possible. Likely? Maybe not, but that seems to be the case.
The production line was probably already finished before the first J-35A flew, especially if the production line is set up around flexible manufacturing concepts.