Shenyang next gen combat aircraft (?J-XDS)
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
If the newest photo accurately shows its tail & nozzle section (AKA no or minimal distortion from AI enhancements and no illusions due to the image being too blurry) then it does look like there are changes. I included a relatively high-quality photo from afiak April 23rd 2025 for reference. The new photo seems to show a longer black patch and different end geometry (the nozzle sides reach the tip of the “tail booms” and retract back toward the midpoint, whereas the old photo show a much shorter nozzle with the midpoint pointing outward, for lack of a better explanation)
I don’t want to jump to any conclusions at this point, so please treat what I say next as speculation at best. Assuming that this is a later prototype (or the same prototype with some sort of refit) it is possible that the J-XDS in the new photo is testing a different, possibly non-TVC nozzle. The longer black sections may be troughs for exhaust gas ala an inverted YF23 nozzle (and many other stealth exhaust designs on drawing boards). If this were so, then I suspect that just like what happened between the first and second prototypes of the J-36, we are seeing multiple design solutions being tested for performance and possibly evaluated against each other to see what is the best design going forward. Would certainly be interesting to see better quality pictures and determine whether a new nozzle design is indeed being tested. Fingers crossed for high-res photos, military enthusiasts do your thing.
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I saw that photo too, but the lower quality led me to be hesitant about its authenticity. But again, it's no surprise that these nozzle designs are modular. Related to this, I believe:
Tbh suspect J-36 nozzles might be modular too.
Re modular nozzles, I'm assuming TVC for air dominance focussed missions, trenches for strike missions. Any idea whether changing modules is unit level plug and play, or basically you can get one or t'other when the aircraft is delivered and you're stuck with it?
Should be no surprise. CMCs should be applied within the engine itself too.
I'm betting on the latter.
I think this patent is related to the "old" nozzle that we have seen from the begining. Here is text version in part.
I believe my link is the same as the patent because the authors all matches. I also think that this nozzle isn't specifically related to J-XD-S but was from the WS-10 TVC in 2022 Zhuhai show.
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- 技术研发人员：许平,孙智孝,毕世权,刘利阳,魏衍强,郑涵天,张伟宁,王钦,穆泉旭
- 技术所有人：中国航空工业集团公司沈阳飞机设计研究所
I would personally avoid using the word "modular" because it gives the impression that led to your question.
The reality is more like that the design makes different engine variants (with different nozzles) sharing most production process. Akin to sedan vs. station wagon of the same car model. Once you settled with one type you are stuck.
So what we could be looking at is pure "J"-36/50 with TVC and "JH" with SERN?