Shenyang FC-31 / J-31 Fighter Demonstrator

sabiothailand said:

I'm not sure about this....
Is J-31 really a 'rip-off' of F-35?
I know that there are some minor designs difference, like J-31 having two engines while F-35 has one, but from the outside, the appearance looks pretty similar to each other....

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Dumb questions deserve dumb answers. I heard your pants are a rip off if my pants, you should pay me royalties. It looks totally the same, pockets in front and back. But what really give it away is the fact it got TWO and not three legs. That is a total give away of my design right there.

sabiothailand said:

I'm not sure about this....
Is J-31 really a 'rip-off' of F-35?
I know that there are some minor designs difference, like J-31 having two engines while F-35 has one, but from the outside, the appearance looks pretty similar to each other....

Click to expand...

Having different number of different engines alone is a big difference.
But overall, it's a very different aircraft, and technically it's much more of a scaled down f-22. Sometimes to its detriment.

Not terribly ambitious aerodynamically, but same can be said about the non-B f-35 itself. If it works - it works, so there is a string of several - 3 - "twin-engined f-35ski".

(though they're conceptually closer to stealthy hornets in that they're trying to achieve).

In Chinese forums, the J35 does not have any advantages over the J20, and how to carry the J35 on an aircraft carrier is a very wrong choice

HSR said:

In Chinese forums, the J35 does not have any advantages over the J20, and how to carry the J35 on an aircraft carrier is a very wrong choice

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Then those people don't know what they are talking about.

sabiothailand said:

I'm not sure about this....
Is J-31 really a 'rip-off' of F-35?
I know that there are some minor designs difference, like J-31 having two engines while F-35 has one, but from the outside, the appearance looks pretty similar to each other....

Click to expand...

Broke: J31 is a f35 copy
Woke: it is chinese f22 copy
Bespoke: J-31 is a 5th gen F-18

HSR said:

In Chinese forums, the J35 does not have any advantages over the J20, and how to carry the J35 on an aircraft carrier is a very wrong choice

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That’s a very general claim, especially in year 2024.
There are multiple Chinese forums. Are you sure they are all still holding such beliefs as of now? Can you list them here? I would be very delighted and fun to read through them.

aahyan said:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1749023430647919038

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Like I replied him already on twitter but that‘s the point, both FC-31 demonstrators were more or less empty shells for basic tests and at least by my understanding had only rudimentary avionics installed. So, an alleged FC-31E is far from being „ready“ and even lesser in service in „a few years“ like some claim.

I doubt an export version would be based on that airframe. It would be way more likely they would base it on the J-35 airframe but without the aircraft carrier components like foldable wings or reinforced landing gear. This would give them increased economies of scale from reusing components.

gelgoog said:

I doubt an export version would be based on that airframe. It would be way more likely they would base it on the J-35 airframe but without the aircraft carrier components like foldable wings or reinforced landing gear. This would give them increased economies of scale from reusing components.

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Exactly ... and even more so, since such a prototype - by all we know - does not exist yet, any claims posted by some fan-boys, a PAF J-31 would be operational in 3-4 years are plain stupid.