Shenyang FC-31 / J-31 Fighter Demonstrator

perhaps not any country but a good number for sure.

janjak desalin said:

No doubt!
Questions is, do they have the program? It seems that the RAF is planning to acquire the Mig-35 to fulfill its future the medium fighter role requirements. As both the J-31 and Mig-35 programs progress, it will be interesting to observe their competition in the international market.

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RAF is the pretty common and accepted acronym for the Royal Air Force for the UK. I'd be careful using that acronym to identify the Russian Air Force...ends up easily confusing some.

Jeff Head said:

RAF is the pretty common and accepted acronym for the Royal Air Force for the UK. I'd be careful using that acronym to identify the Russian Air Force...ends up easily confusing some.

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I think VVS is the generally accepted acronym for the russian air force.

Equation said:

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This just shows the downward spiral of credibility in the media where the intent behind Motley Fool's "news" articles is to get people to buy stock.

AssassinsMace said:

This just shows the downward spiral of credibility in the media where the intent behind Motley Fool's "news" articles is to get people to buy stock.

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True, but either way the FC/J-31 is getting all these western media attention, meanwhile the current China's champion and beauty queen of stealth fighter (J-20) is getting a little bit...jealous.

A Bar Brother said:

Any FC-31 customer will have to wait for a new engine. The RD-93 simply doesn't cut it if SAC is looking at delivering a stealth aircraft.

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The engine does not relate to stealth, unless you are referring to nozzles.

Engine thrust does matter in delivering the kind of weight-to-thrust ratio to allow super-cruise, which is considered one of the key 5th-gen specifications.

If you ditch super-cruise, but retain many of the other 5th-gen aspects, like stealth (at least frontal and side), AESA, other advanced sensors, battle-field network and information share capabilities etc, then you can still make a very attractive and capable aircraft by-passing the bottle neck in the engine department.

The main advantage of super-cruise is in operational range. Cruising in supersonic speed dramatically decreases drag, and allowing much better fuel efficiency. Airplanes which cannot do super-cruise require after-burners to reach supersonic speeds, which burns off fuel very quickly, and they cannot maintain that speed with normal engine power.

But for nations like Pakistan, and if the FC-31 are mainly to be used in air defence roles, then operational range isn't the highest of priorities. For a cheaper price and quicker delivery date (no new engines to hold things up), you still get most of the other more important 5th-gen fighter characteristics. So it may very well be a worthwhile trade-off.

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wtlh said:

The main advantage of super-cruise is in operational range. Cruising in supersonic speed dramatically decreases drag, and allowing much better fuel efficiency. Airplanes which cannot do super-cruise require after-burners to reach supersonic speeds, which burns off fuel very quickly, and they cannot maintain that speed with normal engine power.

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Actually, there are a great many advantages when an aircraft is able to supercruise, a range increase is not one of them, any aircraft will achieve optimal range at a speed "well below" supersonic, and drag is "always" increased, as speed is increased. Supercruise is a big deal because if you are able to "go supersonic" on "dry" thrust alone, and the bad boys have to get into afterburner to either run or chase you, they will be on bingo fuel in a very short time, and you my friend will be "gone"! and that my friend is what supercruise is all about, no magic drag reductions over mach one, just enough dry thrust to push you close to VMAX, allowing you engage or disengage at your discretion, so no the J-31 does not need to supercruise, and the F-35 doesn't need supercruise, but it sure is nice when you're late to the party!