CAC has zero experience in doing folding wings.
Shenyang FC-31 / J-31 Fighter Demonstrator
- Thread starter RedSky
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CAC has zero experience in doing folding wings.
Lethe
Captain
It's questionable whether the US carriers even need to be as large as they are, so I don't expect that China is going to rush to emulate them, especially given China's more restrained strategic objectives.
kwaigonegin
Colonel
Folding wings are not exactly top secret engineering even for the first timer.
I'm pretty sure CAC engineers can figure it out especially since they have tons of examples to look at.
Not to mention if necessary SAC could come in help.
OT
Perhaps a reason not to deploy aircraft to the main carriers that might well be used from smaller carriers, for example UCAV. Such carriers can also be used for initial deck landing training.
I can imagine China building a large carrier every three or four years, the period a carrier spends building in the dry dock and when a sufficient number of Type 002, 003 or whatever is reached to transfer 16 and 17 to the smaller carrier division.
The smaller carriers might be large enough to use radar aircraft. I'm thinking not of a radome like that used on the E-2 but of radar antennae distributed along the leading and trailing edges of the wings of a biplane possibly augmented by balanced beam antennae above and below the fuselage or even along the tips of the wings and the upper and lower edges of vertical tail planes as are used as outside verts on the E-2. Avoiding the drag of the radome and balanced beams must be a good thing. Having a large spacing between upper and lower antennae as well as a large horizontal extend would allow the use of much longer wave lengths.
Blackstone
Brigadier
This is surprising, Deino, I didn't expect it from you. You say I lack balance on the J-31, but I say I'm fairly balanced, and my claim that currently the J-7 is more capable is exactly right. The reason is J-31 is only a technology demonstrator (i.e., vaporware), while the J-7 is a proven aircraft with hundreds or even thousands of combat missions under its belt. If the J-31 ever get to limited production (very big IF), then it would be vastly superior to the J-7, but until then, you can't beat something with nothing.Following You posts in this regard since some time, may I ask if You are blind or is there another reason besides Your bias and hate ???
I know that for You the F-22 and F-35 are the crown jewels in modern aerial warfare - and they are surely so - , but to compare the FC-31 (even as a demonstrator) with the J-7 is either plain stupid, provocative or indeed "blind", which would explain why You "don't see any evidence"!
I do not want to say the FC-31 or J-20 are hyper-super Raptor killers, but at least a more balanced view would help in these discussions.
Deino
manqiangrexue
Brigadier
It was basically everybody's common sense assumption that the J-31 would be fully developed, weapons integrated, and produced before being used on carriers. Did you think they were talking about putting a prototype possibly without a weapons suite on the carrier and sending it into battle? This is plainly lack of common sense on your part.
In your logic, you would say a Tesla Model 3 (not yet produced) would be inferior to ANY e-cars running on the road now? And you will only say that Model 3 is more advanced when it hits the road? But until then Tesla can't beat something with nothing?
Would you have said the same thing 5 years ago about F-35 being inferior to a F-16?
Come on, we all know what is superior even it never see the light on the road or sky.
If it would indeed only be a misunderstanding, then I apologise, but given Your "posting-history" here it I'm sure this "rant" was not made by coincidence !
Blackstone
Brigadier
We know two important facts regarding the J-31, and they are PLAAF and PLANAF have shown little interests in the plane, and no one outside China has picked up development costs. The plane itself is supposed to be a 5th gen aircraft, and Shengyang Aircraft said in 2014 Zhuhai Air Show it's "intended to provide advanced defense capabilities in close-in air support, aerial bombing, and air interdiction operations." That's not a lot of information to go on.
We've seen only two demonstration models take to the sky, and no one can say with confidence it'll ever go into production. Few nations have shown much interests in it, and none have offered co-development funds. And why should they? It's vaporware at this point.
That's the reason I say right now the J-7/F-7 is more capable than the J-31. In fact, it's infinitely more capable, because you can't beat something with nothing.
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