Shenyang FC-31 / J-31 Fighter Demonstrator
- Thread starter RedSky
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Lieutenant General
A lot of it is just science demonstrations by the site. For now everything is just speculation and lots of rumors. We have to wait for further concrete evidence.
MiG-29
Banned Idiot
V/STOL aircraft of the first generation like Harrier, were subsonic, in 1982, Argentina had Mach 2 Mirage III and the Israeli equivalent Nesher.
Argentina could not base their Mirage or A-4 in the Falklands, so they were flying from Rio Gallegos in contineltal South America.
Now the Mirage were not supercruise capable, so if it flew long range missions it only could stay a few minutes in the combat zone and fly very few minutes at Mach 2.
To put it in context, F-35B allows to take off from almost any ship, from improvised airstrips.
J-31 use DSI intakes so there is not chance it will be faster than F-35B, its weight easily is 13-14 tonnes, so its WS-13 can not allow it to supercruise, Russia had the RD-43 engine project of 12 tonnes thrust.
Eurofighter can supercruise simple because it is light, around 10 tonnes in empty weight and 18 tonnes of thrust.
MiG-29 has 16 tonnes of thrust and around 15 tonnes of combat weight.
looking at J-31 you see a fighter that does not seem to have TVC nozzles and to have RD-93 engines.
so most likely the performance of J-31 is quiet similar to F-35 at best.
The wing does not seem very big and the thrust might be low, so the advantage of a V/STOL will be if you can not get airstrips and long runways.
J-31 will very likely at this stage need conventional runways and possibly catapults.
So if you eliminate the runways the F-35B can still operate while the J-31 can not.
So the similarities will be Harrier versus A-4.
China is trying to build a F-35A type aircraft with two conventional WS-13 or RD-93s, however the jet still does not seem to be in the class of F-22 or T-50.
Add passive radar like the one of cassidian and you can more or less control the threat posed by J-31s
Agreed. Until we actually see a working prototype or a formal announcement by the Chinese, we can only wait and see.
I think most people have just simply stop replying to your absurd postings. Only advantage F-35 have over this jet is VSTOL and electronics, but on a pure air to air combat performance, J-31 will blow F-35 out of the water. It is more stealthy, weight less, more thrust to weight ratio, and yes probably fly faster as well.
And no, VSTOL is not the "Win button" for jet airplanes. Vast majority of fighters does not have them and are doing well.
I'm going to stop at that, feel free to posting whatever fantasy you wish to get out of your system.
MiG-29
Banned Idiot
Eurofighter weighs 10 tonnes empty,
F-35 weighs 13 tonnes empty, latest MiG-35 weighs 11 tonnes using lots of composites, J-31 can not weigh less than MiG-35 or F-35, add the DSI intake design limits this makes us see its performance is in the range of F-35
MiG-29 said:
First off... my respond to the first comment is already written (and I believe clearly) in my thread already, and if you bother to read, you will find the answer
Just to add on or repeat what I have written, when the aircrafts are already in the air, it doesn't matter if you have VTOL or STOL or whatever, it is the general capability of the aircraft, the skill of the pilot and the weaponry the aircraft carry.
For example, if the Mirage or whatever fighter was flew by British pilots, do you think the Argentina pilots can win the war if they pilot the Harrier? Really?
Second... Like I say before, no ships in the world that are not design or build launching and landing of an aircraft can support a VTOL fighter taking off and landing on it. And you also say... they still need IMPROVISED airstrip.
Third, even if you are operating a VTOL aircraft, you still need a flat surface, try taking off and landing on a rocky surface and see what would happen.
Plus... China is not trying to build a F-35 type of aircraft... why do I say that? Because we still do not know what the J-31 is for. and I have been saying that whatever we see now is just the prototype, who knows what is the final engines.
Lets not go into whatever vs whatever. Lets just say that the Chinese J-31 is a stealth aircraft, it is new, it is just in prototype stage, what this aircraft is for, nobody know (be it solely for export, be it for carrier, be it for airforce to replace some of their older airframe, or was it just a technology demonstrator to show the big shots up there that SAC also have the capability to come up with a stealth aircraft etc etc.)
And nobody know what will this aircraft be fitted with (AESA, what type of engines etc) too.
Next, how is the performance of this aircraft is a mystery too, because all we see is some leaked photos and this aircraft hadn't even fly yet, what type and how many of weapons this aircraft is carrying is also a mystery.
The only visible disadvantage that I see from this aircraft was the lack of VTOL capability, but how much of disadvantage that is, I do not know... Shall we just wait and see?
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