I wish China would be as open as the US is. China has this habit of slowly dropping tiny hints in the background here and there over years and only many years after something is deemed a lesser security concern. If they were as open as the US, we'd have pretty much official confirmation just how far ahead of the US China already is today in aerospace in almost every tech branch except turbofans and civil aviation.
Of particular interest I find are the non-turbofan engine programs that China has been flying.
Last official hint is at least one type of scramjet China's got is mach 9 capable. May be tied to the YJ-19 or could be one of many other HCMs or even larger aircraft, possibly as part of manned aircraft even. These latest revelations - HCMs, 6th gen fighters, UADFs, FOBS, unmanned stealth bombers, H-20, high supersonic aircraft. All of these items we've had hints of over the years. Almost every single one had easter eggs going back nearly a decade. Insiders sometimes talk about some properly wild technologies but we barely get a trickle. Sometimes you just want to know everything and with PLA watching, it's absolutely frustrating at times. Can they just tell us with words at least. Manned regional strike aircraft with mach 4+ performance. Done. Give it to us in full when you're comfortable years/decades later but give us the knowledge first and a few teaser images and videos.
In contrast, the US keep their fans on constant DMing the latest drops of which there are barely any and they will gloat and brag when their stuff is in the investor scamming phase. How many bullshit hypersonic xyz have we heard from the private sector that went no further than a second slide deck. Yet their fanboys get stuff to occupy their thoughts with between work meetings and boring weekends. Seriously, they are about to build a prototype 6th gen and they've worked their fanboys up with so much foreplay, they've drenched their pants twice already. Meanwhile, China has some other worldly exotic stuff from missiles to engines to craft and we get barely a few posts that quickly get deleted, poems, cryptic mixed messages and then years later they finally reveal the full thing and they've had it flying for so long it's old, old news.
PLA watching is only worth it because we've had so many fast paced developments along pretty much every field and technology branch. All the neat stuff revealed in the last few years are already dated by PLA's actual leading edge. It's still worth it because PLA and China moves so fast and so well. If we were Indian paced and with PLA/China's secrecy, half the forum would be dead from ripe old age before the first item gets their mid life upgrade cycle revealed.
