PLA next/6th generation fighter thread

[Nx4eu]

Could you also indicate the likely locations of the internal weapons bay(s) and landing gears, if possible?

Indeed it is possible, I'll see what I can do.
He deleted the post so I'd say its fair If I delete it here, but I think it's pretty obvious to keep the speculation and my models on this forum, and not on placed like twitter.

 

[Totoro]

I would think 3 separate intakes, one for each engine, would be possible. With the top fuselage intake feeding the middle engine.

 

[Atomicfrog]

I would think 3 separate intakes, one for each engine, would be possible. With the top fuselage intake feeding the middle engine.

Indeed, if this aircraft is made to go fast, they need to optimize airflow for each engine.

Even more if it can use different thrust and thrust vectoring for maneuvering or energy generation. A combined intake would mess things up a lot with an engine spooling slower giving more air to other. It would need complex movable internal ramp for each engine to compensate.

 

[AndrewS]

Indeed, if this aircraft is made to go fast, they need to optimize airflow for each engine.

Even more if it can use different thrust and thrust vectoring for maneuvering or energy generation. A combined intake would mess things up a lot with an engine spooling slower giving more air to other. It would need complex movable internal ramp for each engine to compensate.

An adaptive cycle engine would need movable ramps anyway to switch airflow between modes?

You could have different modes where 3 or 2 or even 1 engine is operating.

My guess is that the maximum airflow requirement is with 3 engines in afterburner.

But in subsonic cruise mode, with say 2 or even just 1 engine operating, the airflow is still being pushed by the compressor fan (presumably powered by electricity from the combusting engines) through the non-combusting engines and generating additional thrust.

So I think it's too early to say combined intakes are suboptimal.

We'll just have to wait till pictures come out

 

[latenlazy]

An adaptive cycle engine would need movable ramps anyway to switch airflow between modes?

Not necessarily. With modern aerodynamic modeling you can get away with inlet shape, tunnel shape, bleed systems, and finer cycle control over the engine run modes so long as you’re not trying to cover 0 to hypersonic. Especially with variable cycle engines bleeds into different bypass stages become an easy and very obvious option.

 

[drowingfish]

my guess is inlet on top of the fuselage only, to maximize stealth. as i said before if this aircraft is purported to operate at a high altitude, then there is less concern for maneuverability, especially given that it is a much larger aircraft.