Slightly larger J-36 sized strike aircraft with only two engines and a deep bay optimised for cruise missiles could mean a lot, J-36's bay is already speculated to be large enough to fit 2 ALBMs and part of it is constrained by closely spaced triple engine setup. This aircraft's engine seems to be widely spaced while being a twin jet hence could allow the main bay to be longer and possibly deeper because no more top intake. Also, because it has 1 less engine the extra space could be allocated to even more fuel and allow an even longer range on top of the advantage of less fuel burn due to less engines.View attachment 157486
My attempt at combining the previous pic and a J-36 size comparison. It looks similar size to the J-36 but less wide. So, overall not a promising size. If its as big as the J-36 then no point getting two planes of the same size.
If.If it's variable wing, that implies carrier use, doesn't it? A J-36 and/or J-XX carrier variant could make sense?
Very much so. A development variant of the aircraft we have seen, made to accommodate a swing-wing wouldI say variant, not in the sense of a variant of an existing aircraft in service (like F-35 A/B/C), but a development variant of the prototypes we've seen. Is that so off?
At present I think the most decisive information we need is something that allows us to accurately gauge its size, followed by confirming whether it has a canopy or not.
Everything else -- whether it is some J-36 derivative or whether it is a large aircraft etc -- imo is jumping the gun a little.
Not helped when the Chinese language side seems to be a bit more quiet than one would expect.
I do think people are getting a bit too caught up about the planform of this aircraft. Specifically, the planform is one that could be for anything, and for any size of tactical aircraft. It is as compatible for a higher end UCAV/CCA (say something the length of J-10) or a full blown manned tactical aircraft. That lack of clarity means we will need to await size +/- cockpit confirmation before deriving anything else.
After all, only one blurry pic can be considered real. And this pic lacks discussion significance.Agreed, and especially your third comment is the one that puzzles me the most!
Why is the "Chinese language side [seems to be] a bit more quiet than one would expect."?
View attachment 157486
My attempt at combining the previous pic and a J-36 size comparison. It looks similar size to the J-36 but less wide. So, overall not a promising size. If its as big as the J-36 then no point getting two planes of the same size.