Yes, but those models are - at least IMO - 100% for sure not related to a sixth gen. fighter but as you noted more likely several UAV/UCAVs and eventually the H-20.
PLA next/6th generation fighter thread
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
Yes, but those models are - at least IMO - 100% for sure not related to a sixth gen. fighter but as you noted more likely several UAV/UCAVs and eventually the H-20.
@Deino
Looks like Rogoway beat SOC to the punch.
===
So now that the satellite pictures are in public, I think it is instructive for us to think back to this placard from the NPU, in 2019, describing how NPU and CAC investigated 8 planforms for 6th gen applications and did flight verification on 4 of them.
I would not be surprised at all if this airframe is an unmanned subscale demonstrator, and possibly even one of those 4 airframes.
Who's SOC?
Sean O Connor
Yes lol it's the first post in the thread.
Though I say that particular depiction, while not an implausible vision of a 6th gen airframe, was just a general competition about various future aerospace concepts and shouldn't be interpreted as serious realized projects or even demonstrators.
Don't take it too seriously, in fact I think it would be beneficial for discussion about future PLA 6th generation efforts to actively avoid talking about these past renderings and drawings as if they are too "serious". Many of them are just back of the envelope drawings.
The only reason they seem kind of plausible is because of how the expectation for 6th gen fighters has just become various types of tailless Doritos.
Interesting to see how similar or different this is compared to the new NGAD design. This airframe could also be incomplete like missing canards.
It is very important to point out that the F/A-XX planform depicted on the image is likely just a generic stand in and almost certainly doesn't reflect a specific planform that they are actively developing or committed to.
The important part of that image is the networking of the aircraft with the friendly UAVs of differing roles, the aircraft planform itself is unimportant and if anything should be considered a red herring.
Yes it is ... he was fast than our Jane's team. Anyway!
Just to this strange "thing", I find his comparison to the X-44 Manta interesting but I also had another idea, namely the new European 6. generation fighter or even - albeit without that strange FSW-part - the right one from an academic paper:
The first image was one of the configurations proposed early on for the European FCAS, before they chose the YF-23 like configuration
The second one is just a variable geometry forward swept wing concept that I doubt will be taken further beyond a paper academic study, and I think it is so unlikely to eventuate as any kind of flying aircraft that it is better to pretend it doesn't exist.
I fully expect 6th generation aircraft to be tailless doritos, and as posted in this thread and others, these are some studies of them from China and the US in the past which may help to inform 6th gen manned fighter planforms.
