Equation
Lieutenant General
Excellent, I believe this baby can sell like hot cakes, once Boeing gets going.
Shenyang FC-31 / J-31 Fighter Demonstrator
- Thread starter RedSky
- Start date
- Status
Excellent, I believe this baby can sell like hot cakes, once Boeing gets going.
Well, they certainly hope they will...and there is a lot of interest.
And in today's financial environment, they make a lot of sense.
In addition, for several of these nations, they can take a route to further reduce costs by choosing to upgrade their existing F-15Es to the F-15SE config without buying new builds...though there are trade offs if they choose to do this...less cost vs more weight and less weapons load.
Another natural for this, and potential huge money maker (because there are so many of them) would be the F-16s!
Now, getting back on topic, one critical question would be how these these toes of 5th gen aircraft would perform vs new build 5th gen designs like the J-20 or J-31.
Last edited:
Blackstone
Brigadier
Oh my! What the PLAAF wouldn't give to get their hands on that baby.
I believe thats a Super Hornet with conformal fuel tanks etc, the Silent Eagles canted tails have been eliminated from the proposal, that would be a major redesign requiring lots of flight testing etc, etc, but the concept had potential. The F-14 was taken offline because of engines and swing wing hydraulics etc, that made it very expensive to fly and maintain, beautifull and successfull as it was so? These aircraft could not be considered fifth gen more like 4.25-.50 gen. AFB
yes, the cover pic for the video is an "improved" Super Hornet, but the video starts out talking about the Silent Eagle. I am sure the PLAAF would love to have either.
I don't think this Silent Eagle or Mod F-18 comes cheap... Of course, it is not as expensive as a real 5th gen fighter but their design will not make them a true 5th gen. Its like spending the money but still not able to deliver the goods?
The initial design of lacking the internal bomb bay already kill off most of these 4th gen fighter chances. Move on!
The initial design of lacking the internal bomb bay already kill off most of these 4th gen fighter chances. Move on!
Not necessarily, stealthy aircraft are very expensive to design and to build, a healthy fourth gen is still a formidable opponent, especially in the US position, because no one else has any operationally coded fifth gens as of today, or the next six months or possibly two years. So today 12/12/12, unless your opponent is the US military, if your avionics are sound, your fourth gen fighter is up to the job, and fourth gens will be an operational part of any future battlefield for a number of years to come, thats just the reality of the situation as of today. AFB
Equation
Lieutenant General
Didn't the US Air Force F-111 has the same swing wing hydraulics concept like the Navy F-14? Just curious as to did it face the same problems when maintaining them?
SinoSoldier
Colonel
LOL a few years ago I was pretty excited when I first heard of a "Silent Flanker" that was under development. Turns out the J-16 wasn't stealthy at all and became more of a F-15SG equivalent, unfortunately. But didn't the US reject the F-15SE itself and went for F-35 upgrades and F-15C AESA installation instead? I seems that the price wasn't worth bridging the ever-shortening gap between 4.5 generation and 5 generation.
Last edited:
SinoSoldier
Colonel
WS-10X is actually the rumored engine on the J-20. But it's most likely to be a repainted Al-31. The WS-15 won't be ready until the fifth prototype, around 2015-ish, is built. Then it still needs tons of taxi test and such before a flight could be made.
- Status