Shenyang Plane Company’s tailless stealth fighter has appeared in new photographs that supply extra insights into its unique design. The plane, unofficially dubbed the ‘J-50,’ is one in all two Chinese language tailless heavy next-generation fighter designs that emerged on Dec. 26, 2024. The opposite bigger three-engined kind, colloquially known as the ‘J-36,’ is constructed by the Chengdu Plane Company. You’ll be able to learn our very in-depth earlier evaluation of each these plane here.
It isn’t clear if the brand new picture comes from a current take a look at flight or is from the Dec. 26 sortie. Whereas we have now seen proof of the bigger J-36 making additional test flights since its first publicly identified one, the J-50 has not been noticed within the air for over three months.
Imagery from the J-50’s first and solely identified take a look at flight. (Chinese language Web)
The brand new picture reveals a clearer side-on view of the superior jet than any we have now seen earlier than. Notable are what may very effectively be the presence of aspect weapons bays, broadly just like these discovered on the F-22A Raptor and the J-20. We additionally see an angular bulge underneath the nostril, which may very well be an opaque placeholder for a faceted electro-optical system, related to what’s discovered on the F-35 and the J-20.
The cover on this plane is simply seen within the picture, however we nonetheless don’t have a transparent understanding of its form and the way it’s blended into the fuselage. Some initially questioned if this plane was manned due to the shortage of readability concerning its cockpit space, however all indications level to it being a crewed fighter.
The plane’s pronounced lambda wing planform can also be readily obvious right here, and one of many jet’s strangest features — articulating wingtips — may also be seen, with the appropriate wing’s tip deflected. Two-dimensional engine exhausts, probably that includes thrust vectoring, are additionally seen. A two-wheeled nostril touchdown gear is confirmed, with single wheels for the mains. This isn’t new, nevertheless it underscores the burden class distinction between this design and Chengdu’s very heavy design, which options twin wheels for its essential gear organized in tandem. The nostril gear door additionally offers us new proof of the ventral centerline ‘tunnel’ that exists beneath the fuselage on this plane.
The inlets are arguably probably the most elegant-looking construction on this plane. Diverterless Supersonic Inlet (DSI) varieties that mix immediately from the nostril, with the trapezoidal inlet constructions surrounding the DSI ‘hump,’ are actually obvious right here. This association is extra spectacular than the F-22-like fenced intakes on the J-36, though that plane additionally encompasses a DSI association for its dorsal consumption.
Picture of the bigger three-engined J-36. (Chinese language Web)
In some methods, this plane appears extra superior than its Chendgu counterpart, though they’re actually in several courses simply by way of measurement and weight. It stays unclear if these designs are tied to a single program and its outlined aims, or are for 2 separate packages centered on completely different functionality units with some overlap.
You’ll be able to learn all about this and the options described above in our in-depth initial analysis, which all the things we’re seeing right this moment helps.
China’s massive next-generation stealth fighter developments come because the U.S. Air Power is now formally pursuing a sixth era fighter design as a part of its wide-ranging Subsequent Technology Air Dominance (NGAD) program under the new F-47 designation. Boeing received that contract and has to this point put ahead simply two renderings of its plane, each of which present a low-observable design with canard foreplanes — a feature that’s historically antithetical to stealth that’s lacking on each Chinese language designs, however does exist on the operational J-20. The Navy is about to announce its personal F/A-XX 6th generation fighter selection, as effectively.
F-47 (USAF)
Whereas many have taken to the web to declare China has overtaken the U.S. in fighter design as they’ve two tailless stealth fighter plane flying and the U.S. has none, that is incorrect. The DoD has been flying at least two NGAD demonstrators, one from Boeing and one from Lockheed Martin, for years now, and people are simply those to this point disclosed. These demonstrators flew as a part of a Protection Superior Analysis Initiatives Company-led program that additionally concerned the Navy. Different U.S. testing of tailless stealth fighter design ideas date back decades. Nonetheless, as we specified by nice element in our unique evaluation, China has made unbelievable progress of their fight plane design and manufacturing capabilities in a comparatively quick period of time, and that progress is barely set to speed up.
In different phrases, the hole is closing.
As is all the time the case with imagery of latest high-tech weaponry popping out of China, we must always see more and more detailed choices of each plane because the weeks go on. So, we must always be capable of glean extra from their designs within the close to future.
