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Uncategorized Thursday, September 20th 2012 at 12:15 pm

First Look at the J-31, China’s Newest Stealth Jet

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Though there’s currently some discussion ongoing about the prototype’s official designation, what’s certain is that China’s definitely working on yet another stealth jet. Supposedly built by Shenyang, a rival aerospace company of the J-20 designer Chengdu, the jet features the number 31001 blazoned across it. It’s for this reason it’s most likely the J-31, not the J-21, though it’s definitely called what translates to the Falcon Eagle.

According to The Aviationist, this latest prototype not only mimics the F-22 Raptor, but some features of the F-35 as well:

The new aircraft, coded 31001 (hence, believed to be designated J-31) it’s a sort of copy of the F-22 Raptor the most advanced (and troubled), (multi-role) fighter jet in the U.S. Air Force inventory: same nose section, same twin tails and trapezoidal wings along with the distinctive lines of the stealth design. Anyway, even if it has two engines, the new aircraft doesn’t seem to feature thrust vectoring capabilities. At least on this first prototype.

It has also some F-35-like features, as the air intakes and wings dimensions.

Though there are few images of the aircraft, all of which came out this weekend, more are likely to surface as more folks are made aware of its existence. China appears to really like the idea of having stealth fighters.

(via The Aviationist, Wired, images via China Defense Blog)

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  • Gregory Williams

    Romney is a fool for believing that Russia is the FOE we should be worried about, Bush 41 allowed China to steal us blind and Bush 43 kept feeding them tech just as fast as they could take it. Those two should stand trial for treason and the entire republican party with them for trying to frame Clinton for the tech thefts that the Bush elder allowed. China has W-88 level weapons because of that and Bush 43 helped them fix their carrier problems and the problems they had with submarine launched missiles. Since these pictures are out it is a sure bet that this is an operational weapons platform, they do not allow the release of information on their failures.

  • Anonymous

    Looks nice on the ground, has anyone seen it in the air?

  • Devil’s Spawn

    Folks, there is nothing new here. The pattern goes back to the 1950s. We (the US) would come up with something great, then the Russians would copy it, even down to putting holes where we had holes but not knowing what the hole was for. Our plane would have a device that needed the air, but their copy would have nothing there on the inside. Step two was the Chinese buying a few of the Russian models, then making their own copies. That worked for tanks and APCs, too, but the Russians didn’t copy our tanks and APCs.
    In this case, it is easy enough to copy the externals and gain some of the stealth and aerodynamic benefits from that. Some, but not all.
    In answer to another post, yes. It does fly. China also has a successful space program, with real, live astronauts. This should not surprise anyone. The Chinese people have patriotism, just like we do, and China is capable of producing anything we can. It is only a matter of time because China has learned to be a very modern, very capitalist society.

  • Devil’s Spawn

    Yes.

  • Anonymous

    Way to turn this into an unnecessary political s%&t storm. Can’t you turn off your partisan for 5 god damn seconds?

  • Anonymous

    It’s made in China, so it will fall apart in a week.

  • Anonymous

    It was probably a former Bain Capitol company that was off shored to China.

  • Anonymous

    didn’t a democrat from texas sell these plans about a year ago?

  • Devil’s Spawn

    Fact: Cessna’s newest and smallest airplane, a trainer version, is entirely made and certified as airworthy in China. It is then disassembled enough (take the wings off) to put on a ship to the US. In the US, the wings are put back on and it is good to go.

  • Anonymous

    I’m willing to bet the production model won’t have those round exhaust nozzles. Those are terrible for stealthiness.

  • http://realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/president/ CyberForce

    How is China having stealth fighters not important in regard to our defense, and therefore political?

    You should rethink that.

  • http://realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/president/ CyberForce

    Dunno what the reason for the down votes are, but whoever they are can’t be more than ignorant douche bags.

  • Tallyho

    So you need to buy a new computer, etc. at least within a week.

  • Robert Xie

    do 95% of all your other possessions fall apart within a week?

  • joe

    World will PEACE without US

  • Gregory Williams

    You know why they are down voting truthful and factual statements, even when it comes to our national security and the continual proven failures of republicans they still hate and deny that kind of truth.

  • Anonymous

    lol if not within a week then within 6 months..and they wont honor their warranty unless you pay over seas shipping…them bastards!!

  • simon1999

    the fact is you merely paid 10% of same american made product and now want 10 times more warranty, thats 100 folds! you win!

  • http://www.facebook.com/jamesck1 James Clark King

    OUR INTEREST PAYMENTS PAY FOR THESE PROJECTS. SO WE ARE CUTTING OUR OWN THROAT. OUR F22 PROGRAM WAS SCRAPPED DUE TO LOUSY PRODUCTION COSTS AND NOW THE F 35 IS ABOUT TO BE TOO. THE MILITARY SHOULD HAVE BUILT THE F23 BY NORTHOP BUT POLITICS DID IT IN.

  • Anonymous

    That just sounds retarded and over-exagerated..I’m assuming you are chinese and have no idea what a warranty is..

    A warranty is when you buy an item let say $100 and if it breaks within the time frame of the warranty that the company has guaranteed you get that SAME device repaired and if it cant be repaired you should get another item similar to it.

    Why would I expect something twice as much in return or like you said 10x as much? We all know how cheap chinese people are as it is.

    And no there is no chinese electronics that is priced “10% of same american made product”. And if there is obviously it is crap and only an idiot would buy that.

  • Anonymous

    See I thought it was Nixon and Clinton who sold/gave technology away to the chinese. But either way China owns so much of the USA debt that they are entitled to it since USA has no way of paying it back. If you think USA economy is bad in the last few years..imagine if china wants all of their loans paid back and stops lending the USA…

  • Pearl M.

    If it can’t be repaired you should get an replacement, not a similar product. That’s not what a warranty provides if you after all end up with a totally different item.

    BTW, to your last statement, the iPhone should be crap too then.

  • http://www.facebook.com/stephen.yang Stephen Yang

    The F-15 Eagle was the response to the Soviet Mig-25 Foxbat. Sometimes we copied them. (And in this particular example, the Eagle was slower than the Foxbat.)

  • ZagNutZ

    LuLz!
    There isn’t much that’s slower than the Foxbat. It was designed to reach Mach 3 (only temporarily, until the engine failed). The Soviet government was intent on using this as a way to intercept the SR-71. Their stated tactic? Get up to Mach 3 behind the Blackbird and start shooting missiles at it. XD

    I’m glad we made the F-15 the way we made it. It had a better aesthetic look, it was more versatile and had a stellar combat record (and you could apparently land it with only one wing after colliding with an enemy aircraft).

  • yong

    I hope US military planner think like you too! btw US first return £1.4 trillion Chinese debt before ranting about it.Have you ever been to China or like most stupid dum Americans you believe what your corrupt media tells you. Atleast Beijing does not have any slums and no go areas like New york.

  • yong

    Hope you find job in Pentagon!

  • yong

    Hopefully US finally fix never-ending problems with 80era so called stealth f-22s because it costed them more then $700 million per piece of that junk!

  • Anonymous

    Hahahahaha! No slums!!! Hahahahahahahahahaha! Did the Chinese government tell you that?

    You guys might have more “no go” areas if the criminals in the streets weren’t already working for your government.

  • Anonymous

    Correction; the F-15 was a response to what we thought the Mig-25 was. At the time, we assumed it was an extremely fast, maneuverable long range interceptor with advanced weapons.

    In reality, the Mig-25 was a pig that could barely turn and could only fly supersonic for short periods of time before the engines melted. The F-15, on the other hand, turned out to be the greatest fighter ever conceived.

    Also, there’s a difference between ‘copying’ something and responding to it. We didn’t copy anything. We responded to a set of capabilities in an innovative and unique manner. The Russians and Chinese, on the other hand, copy our designs outright.

  • Anonymous

    I agree that the YF-23 was a better option, however you’re dreaming if you think it would have been any cheaper than the F-22.

    The production costs per unit are so high because they cut the volume to less than a third of what the original order was supposed to be. If they built more of them, the costs would go down significantly.