Shenyang FC-31 / J-31 Fighter Demonstrator

Here is to my faint hope this aircraft ends up being named the J-21 or even the J-22 instead of the J-31 or heavens forbid the J-35.

There is really no point in skipping over a dozen numbers when this fighter jet will be in the same generation as the J-20.

ChineseToTheBone said:

Here is to my faint hope this aircraft ends up being named the J-21 or even the J-22 instead of the J-31 or heavens forbid the J-35.

There is really no point in skipping over a dozen numbers when this fighter jet will be in the same generation as the J-20.

Click to expand...

There is a good chance of that happening if the FC-31 enters service with the PLA.

The reason that J-20, Z-20, Y-20, and H-20 all have 20 within the designation is supposedly that China was twenty years behind the state of the art tech when those projects were conceived. Additional variants within the same generation will carry similar designations.

siegecrossbow said:

There is a good chance of that happening if the FC-31 enters service with the PLA.

The reason that J-20, Z-20, Y-20, and H-20 all have 20 within the designation is supposedly that China was twenty years behind the state of the art tech when those projects were conceived. Additional variants within the same generation will carry similar designations.

Click to expand...

LoL, I agree with your conclusion, but your statement on why Chinese using 20 is hilarious. I’m so curious on how Chinese know they are exactly 20 years behind on all those aspects, XD... should there be like ws-30 when they made engine? Or like j-12.5 if they believe the gap is 12.5 years? XDDD

siegecrossbow said:

There is a good chance of that happening if the FC-31 enters service with the PLA.

The reason that J-20, Z-20, Y-20, and H-20 all have 20 within the designation is supposedly that China was twenty years behind the state of the art tech when those projects were conceived. Additional variants within the same generation will carry similar designations.

Click to expand...

I don’t see why they would name their equipment to commemorate the fact they were some years behind others...

maybe they wanted to declare that they would rule in the 21st century starting with 20xx? My guess...

Inst said:

YF-23, of course. You're looking at a compromised stealth canard supercruiser that's going to be complemented by a somewhat stealthier cheap plane. The YF-23 is stealthier than the YF-22 that replaced in, on

Click to expand...

YF-23/F-23 transition was expeCTted to be much more troublesome than for YF-22/F-22(and this was already one hell of a mess).
It didn't just look cool, it required lots of new devrlopments inside as well. For example, for electronics, required to work under much larger strains&thermal loads just as reliably. And that's on top of this scheme being only half-proven.

"Copying" something discarded because it looks coolof its perceived advantages is nice, but it doesn't serve the purpose very well.

Furthermore, YF-23 was designed by combo of two extremely prolific fighter design houses back then(arguably - simply the best), who suddenly lost to a comparatively weak Lockheed(designed before GD asquisition!).
And lost again decade later, btw.

You have to be a very...bold/foolish to attempt imitating something like this as early/mid-2000s Shenyang.

taxiya said:

I think FC-31 would be a good choice, like WS-10 on J-11.

If the engine houses on FC-31 were prepared for target engine bigger than RD-93 and WS-19 is the target engine, both are pretty certain, then there is no problem of putting one WS-19 on FC-31 and keeping the other RD-93 as a precaution. The target engine was never RD-93, so the dimension and fitting of the housing must have taken that into consideration. This is the same thing as J-20 and WS-15 in the future.

Click to expand...

J-20 didn't undergo a drastic size-up and WS-10 was always the target engine on J-11. I find it a little odd that both FC-31 and the naval evolution, which is 30% enlarged, are slated to use the same WS-19. Unless that rumor isn't true and there isn't a 30% size-up... But in any case, V1 and V2 are far from tried and true designs like a Flanker.

xyqq said:

It says: Today, congrat to Shenkhoi.

Click to expand...

Pardon in case I missed something, but what is meant with "today" ?

manqiangrexue said:

J....I find it a little odd that both FC-31 and the naval evolution, which is 30% enlarged, are slated to use the same WS-19. Unless that rumor isn't true and there isn't a 30% size-up... ....

Click to expand...

Again I beg your pardon, but from what i know or rate as reliable, no-one says the definitive variant will be a 30% scale-up. These are IMO hopes, spread rumours from some who also with the JF-17 Block 3 could simply be enlarged to have more pylons, a more powerful WS-10 or so.

From what i understand, the size will be more or less the same and as such the WS-19 should perfectly fit the FC-31 demonstrators.

nah it just simple means new gen equipments for the air force

stannislas said:

LoL, I agree with your conclusion, but your statement on why Chinese using 20 is hilarious. I’m so curious on how Chinese know they are exactly 20 years behind on all those aspects, XD... should there be like ws-30 when they made engine? Or like j-12.5 if they believe the gap is 12.5 years? XDDD

Click to expand...

I look forward to future combat aircraft J+5.

ChineseToTheBone said:

Here is to my faint hope this aircraft ends up being named the J-21 or even the J-22 instead of the J-31 or heavens forbid the J-35.

There is really no point in skipping over a dozen numbers when this fighter jet will be in the same generation as the J-20.

Click to expand...

That depends on whether these numbers have been taken by some ongoing but unknown designs. If there are such designs, but eventually dropped, we may see number gaps. Historical examples are J-12, J-9 and Y-10 which had prototypes built, or Y-1 to 4, Y-6, Y-11, Y-13 to 19 skipped. H-7 renamed to JH-7 (FBC-1), so skipped.

It is hard to believe that PLAF has some 10 ongoing secrete programs reserving 21 to 30, so J-2X is reasonable to expect.