J-35A fighter (PLAAF) + FC-31 thread

[CaribouTruth]

indeed, I forgot, but what does Ying Lobg mean?

Responsive Dragon, a winged rain dragon. Response as in - reply, answer, agree, promise.
I'd also like to caveat this by saying that as a non native learner there could be a better translation, and I defer to those more knowledgeable on the matter.

 

[Wrought]

indeed, I forgot, but what does Ying Long mean?

It's a

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

to a winged rain dragon (normally Chinese dragons don't have wings). Farmers and such would pray for rain, and when it came it would be seen as a divine blessing. He carved out the rivers with his tail, and so on.

I'd probably translate it as Promised Dragon, in the common religious sense of promised rains (shows up all the time in the Bible too).

 

[Blitzo]

I had a go at trying to scale these two images to try and get a gauge for J-35A's weapons bay compared to J-20's.

I scaled them based on J-20's length being assumed as 20.8m, and J-35A's length assumed as 17.3m (both of these potentially being slightly erroneous in reality, the former given we don't have an actual specification, the latter using past FC-31V2 dimensions from AVIC).

I have drawn a green delineating the actual weapons bay dimensions (primarily length) of J-20's weapons bay, which is somewhat shorter than the actual "external" serrated weapons bay panels that we see (ignore the red boxes, they were just to help provide the dimensions for the length and width to try to keep those consistent). Based off that, the J-35A's external weapons bay doors are somewhat larger than the green box delineation, and it seems viable for it to thus "contain" the actual needed dimensions for J-20's IWB.

Overall, based off various measurement errors and both images being at slightly different angles to their respective cameras, this image doesn't explicitly confirm anything and it remains viable that J-35A's weapons bay dimensions is the same as that of J-20, but I suspect we won't get any better confirmation unless one day we see J-35A open its bay and show four PL-15s in the same manner as we've seen J-20 carry four at Zhuhai some years back.

 

[gelgoog]

How about going by engine nozzle diameter size as a base for the measurement? The dimensions for the AL-31 and the RD-33 are documented.

 

[Alfa_Particle]

I had a go at trying to scale these two images to try and get a gauge for J-35A's weapons bay compared to J-20's.

I scaled them based on J-20's length being assumed as 20.8m, and J-35A's length assumed as 17.3m (both of these potentially being slightly erroneous in reality, the former given we don't have an actual specification, the latter using past FC-31V2 dimensions from AVIC).

I have drawn a green delineating the actual weapons bay dimensions (primarily length) of J-20's weapons bay, which is somewhat shorter than the actual "external" serrated weapons bay panels that we see (ignore the red boxes, they were just to help provide the dimensions for the length and width to try to keep those consistent). Based off that, the J-35A's external weapons bay doors are somewhat larger than the green box delineation, and it seems viable for it to thus "contain" the actual needed dimensions for J-20's IWB.

Overall, based off various measurement errors and both images being at slightly different angles to their respective cameras, this image doesn't explicitly confirm anything and it remains viable that J-35A's weapons bay dimensions is the same as that of J-20, but I suspect we won't get any better confirmation unless one day we see J-35A open its bay and show four PL-15s in the same manner as we've seen J-20 carry four at Zhuhai some years back.

IIRC the J-35A is at 17.7m.

They apparently did a bit of finessing going from the V2 to the J-35/A to make space for thicker payloads, illustrated here:

Seen above, by raising the engine bays and stretching the fuselage longer, the s-ducts can be finessed to take up less of the IWB's space. Thus, it's capable of storing a larger (pun intended) variety of payloads:

Top one is a side view of the J-35/A's IWB. The one under it is the J-20's. The third one is both overlaid on top of each other, and the final image is where the hypothesized payload was taken from.

Another comparison:

The choice of medium-thrust class engines for the J-35/A is even more justified here since the s-ducts can be thinner compared to the J-20.

Source for the J-35/A's IWB:

 

[siegecrossbow]

How about going by engine nozzle diameter size as a base for the measurement? The dimensions for the AL-31 and the RD-33 are documented.

Issue is we are not sure if WS-21 or WS-19 have the same dimensions as RD-33.

 

[Lucas234]

OK, let's sum up the nicknames... Additions or corrections welcomed.

J-10 = 猛龙 = Měnglóng = Vigorous Dragon
J-11 = 应龙 = Yìnglóng = Responsive Dragon
J-15 = 飞鲨 = Fēishā = Flying Shark
J-16 = 潜龙 = Qianlóng = Hidden Dragon
JF-17 = 枭龙 = Xiāolóng = Fierce Dragon
J-20 = 威龙 = Wēilóng = Mighty Dragon
J-35 = 蓝鲨 = Lánshā = Blue Shark
J-35A = 耀龙 = Yàolóng = Glorious Dragon

 

[ACuriousPLAFan]

Illustrations from academic papers which likely indicates the longitudinal cross-sectional diagram of the internal weapons bay (IWB) of the J-35A (for the PLAAF) and the J-35 (for the PLAN).

Posted by @Captain小潇 on Weibo.






Assuming the lengths of IWBs on both the J-20/As and J-35/As are similar, if not exactly the same:

Through comparison, the IWBs of the J-35/A seems to considerably differ from the IWB of the J-20, such that the J-35/A's IWB actually has a deeper depth towards the front than the J-20's IWB, mainly due to the differences in the placement of the IWBs and the designs of the engine inlets on both the J-20 and J-35/A.




This has likely resulted in the J-35/As being actually capable of carrying larger-dimension payloads inside her IWB than the J-20.

The upper four diagrams should refer to the J-35/As, whereas the lower four diagrams should refer to the J-20.



Honestly, didn't realise the the IWB of the J-20 actually doesn't have a uniform depth across the entire length until today.



Such features could also explain why the J-20/As and J-35As are given different mission sets by the PLAAF.

 

[Totoro]

Where is the room for inlet right in front of the engine in that drawing?

 

[Harry Kane]

Lateral & ventral comparison of the J-20 and J-35A - I calibrated both images using the pilots' helmets and obtained a consistent length of around 17.7 meters for the J-35A assuming a J-20 length of 20.6 meters (a stat individually corroborated with comparison with flankers). The weapon bays appear to be around the same width although J-20's appear to be slightly longer. The red line on J-35A's nose indicate a possible radome position assuming the same radar as the J-20.