Shenyang FC-31 / J-31 Fighter Demonstrator

thunderchief said:

It remains to be seen would RAM coating on F-35 endure rough weather and salty sea water .

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Not to get OT but I have a friend who works at Boeing in my hometown and the dept works on NOTHING but paint! We're talking a whole lot of extremely smart folks who spends every single minute thinking and experimenting about ways to make paint that is more heat resistant, more absorbent of different frequencies, to different IR wavelengths, less reflective and yes more resistant to salt or other corrosive particles.
Needless to say this is not your typical Behr or Sherwin Williams you can get at Lowes or Home Depot.

rhino123 said:

Ok. Not downsize but navalised.

But I think both of you are missing the gist of my comment. What I mean is not downsize or navalised or whatever. What I meant is, it make sense for J-31 to be chosen... mainly because it was already flying. We can see the J-31, and it was in the air already.

Although J-20 was also flying, but not the navalised one... we are not even sure at which stage was the navalised J-20 was?

So to speed things up, J-31 seemed to be a better choice. And as to whether the aerodynamic of J-20 is better suited as compared to J-15 or what, doesn't make a difference. Sure you can have a navalised J-20 in future, but right now, only the J-15 and J-31 make sense and I would believe the J-31 are from the same company as of J-15 who have more experience in designing for a system that can be used on an aircraft carrier.

Now... that is my main points, and not the downsizing or navalising of the J-20.

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I think the key issue you have to keep in mind is that the present J-31 may not actually have any capability to operate on a carrier. In which case, the performance of the aircraft would become a key evaluation parameter. Additionally, CAC also has a better reputation at the moment, which somewhat cancels out the advantages SAC's experience with J-15.

The only benefit from the J-31 is that there is no demand from the air force, so the navy would be able to get this plane sooner. So yes, it might speed things up, but not for the reasons you have cited.

Engineer said:

I think the key issue you have to keep in mind is that the present J-31 may not actually have any capability to operate on a carrier. In which case, the performance of the aircraft would become a key evaluation parameter. Additionally, CAC also has a better reputation at the moment, which somewhat cancels out the advantages SAC's experience with J-15.

The only benefit from the J-31 is that there is no demand from the air force, so the navy would be able to get this plane sooner. So yes, it might speed things up, but not for the reasons you have cited.

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So is the SAC bid a single engine proposal or a twin sized version using WS-13 size engines, or a navalized J-20?

If it's the first, the J-31 would probably have some aerodynamic advantages?

Skywatcher said:

So is the SAC bid a single engine proposal or a twin sized version using WS-13 size engines, or a navalized J-20?

If it's the first, the J-31 would probably have some aerodynamic advantages?

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SAC's proposal is some variant of the J-31. The J-20 is a design by CAC.

latenlazy said:

SAC's proposal is some variant of the J-31. The J-20 is a design by CAC.

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Mea culpa.

Uploaded with [U人民网北京9月23日电（杨铁虎、石霞）记者23日下午从中国航空工业集团公司（简称中航工业）获悉，国产先进战斗机概念（AFC）模型将首次亮相北京航展。

中航工业将在9月25日-28日举行的第15届北京国际航空展览会上展出AFC先进战斗机概念模型。

这种战机是中航工业针对未来国际军贸市场需要，规划研制的多用途先进战斗机。飞机采用单座、双发、双垂尾、正常式布局，具有高隐身、低成本、大载弹量、大作战半径、强系统综合等特点，综合作战效能优于三代半和三代改战斗机，与典型四代机基本相当。

在今天开幕的北京国际航展中，中航工业展出了先进概念战机。据中航工业工作人员介绍，该款先进概念战机主要针对国际市场，目前处于概念研制阶段，用于验证隐形技术、发动机技术、先进航电系统等关键技术。

RL=http://imageshack.us]ImageShack.us[/URL]
according to AVIC,this is not J-31,fighter temporary designate as AFC (advance fighter China?) or improve J-31?

hardware said:

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Uploaded with [U人民网北京9月23日电（杨铁虎、石霞）记者23日下午从中国航空工业集团公司（简称中航工业）获悉，国产先进战斗机概念（AFC）模型将首次亮相北京航展。

中航工业将在9月25日-28日举行的第15届北京国际航空展览会上展出AFC先进战斗机概念模型。

这种战机是中航工业针对未来国际军贸市场需要，规划研制的多用途先进战斗机。飞机采用单座、双发、双垂尾、正常式布局，具有高隐身、低成本、大载弹量、大作战半径、强系统综合等特点，综合作战效能优于三代半和三代改战斗机，与典型四代机基本相当。

在今天开幕的北京国际航展中，中航工业展出了先进概念战机。据中航工业工作人员介绍，该款先进概念战机主要针对国际市场，目前处于概念研制阶段，用于验证隐形技术、发动机技术、先进航电系统等关键技术。

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according to AVIC,this is not J-31,fighter temporary designate as AFC (advance fighter China?) or improve J-31?

Click to expand...

Could be just the export version of the J-31. One can see the air inlet is different than the one we've saw flying.

hardware said:

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Uploaded with [U人民网北京9月23日电（杨铁虎、石霞）记者23日下午从中国航空工业集团公司（简称中航工业）获悉，国产先进战斗机概念（AFC）模型将首次亮相北京航展。

中航工业将在9月25日-28日举行的第15届北京国际航空展览会上展出AFC先进战斗机概念模型。

这种战机是中航工业针对未来国际军贸市场需要，规划研制的多用途先进战斗机。飞机采用单座、双发、双垂尾、正常式布局，具有高隐身、低成本、大载弹量、大作战半径、强系统综合等特点，综合作战效能优于三代半和三代改战斗机，与典型四代机基本相当。

在今天开幕的北京国际航展中，中航工业展出了先进概念战机。据中航工业工作人员介绍，该款先进概念战机主要针对国际市场，目前处于概念研制阶段，用于验证隐形技术、发动机技术、先进航电系统等关键技术。

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according to AVIC,this is not J-31,fighter temporary designate as AFC (advance fighter China?) or improve J-31?

Click to expand...

The J-10 on the right seems to be sporting a slightly redesigned randome and looks a bit different from older variants. Could this be the FC-20 version?

The AFC (Advance Fighter Concept) seemed not to target domestic market, but more geared towards export only. as mentioned by the authors, it is a single seat fighter with stealth characteristic and had a large weapon carriage capability, and also it is cheap (relatively), large combat radius and of conventional layout. However, as mentioned too... the aircraft is superior to 3.5gen and modified 3 gen fighters, consider as a 4 gen fighters...

记者23日下午从中国航空工业集团公司（简称中航工业）获悉，国产先进战斗机概念（AFC）模型将首次亮相北京航展。

中航工业将在9月25日-28日举行的第15届北京国际航空展览会上展出AFC先进战斗机概念模型。

这种战机是中航工业针对未来国际军贸市场需要，规划研制的多用途先进战斗机。飞机采用单座、双发、双垂尾、正常式布局，具有高隐身、低成本、大载弹量、大作战半径、强系统综合等特点，综合作战效能优于三代半和三代改战斗机，与典型四代机基本相当。（杨铁虎石霞）

Click to expand...

With that in mind, I believe the AFC is not the J-31, but an export version. Maybe losing to the competition with CAC, SAC came up with the AFC to appeal to external market which I believe could be quite large as many countries might want their own stealth plane but cannot afford the F-35.

However, it is interesting to note that this aircraft is classified as a 4 gen aircraft and not a 5 gen aircraft and there is no mentioning of what is the powerplant, weapon capacity and combat radius, just the usual - "large" which can means anything.

may be just another sales gimick.