If one considers development of the J-10, it took ~13 years before they got their first test flight.
Either China started this program very early or the development may have been hasten with external assistance eg Russia. Not surprising the latter if engine used are russki.
Having said that, too early to say whether J-XX is actually a stealth a/c or 5th gen and could merely be an improvement of legacy warfare capabilities. There are stealth features such as the canted tail, clean design but it could be a F-15SE wanabe rather than a true stealth fighter.
Yeah some people are saying the first flight will be happening very soon (like a day or two/a week, kind of soon). Of course I can't really back up this statement but all the chatter suggests a flight around the new year.
In my opinion i won`t believe it is a real fighter until i see news and statements by the USAF or Russian sources or a clear picture and a Chinese oficial statement, Russia and the US both nations have satellites and interest in knowing if China has or not a stealth fighter.
Fair enough I suppose, though you'll be in a long wait for China to confirm the J-20's existence. They only declassified the J-10 like a year or two after it acheived IOC.
I see several incongruencies in the fighter picture and the fighter it self..
First my cell phone takes excellent pictures and is tiny, those pictures are horribly blur.
second is illogic the Chinese do not search the plane watchers just to later censor the pictures and use the pictures leaked as a PR exercise.
Some pictures are excellent while some are very cr*ppy. Pictures are all over Sinodefence forum, china defence forum and the key aviation forums -- go take a look at all of them.
Here's a few to start you off:
http://cnair.top81.cn/fighter/J-20a.jpg
http://cnair.top81.cn/fighter/J-20.jpg
http://img.fyjs.cn/Mon_1012/27_103597_d3e405fe9d25ca1.jpg
later the aircraft looks from the front an F-22 and from behind like the S-37 Berkut.
the US and Russia have satellites that easily can detect the fighter on the tarmac of Chengdu.
So far the Russians have not said anything official.
No offence, but if you're waiting for Russian confirmation of the J-20... well they're the last people you should go to for PLA related news. Let's leave it at that.
And as for the F-22 and Berkut similarities -- the canopy and nose resemble the F-22 (but the pitot probe is in a position more like the F-35 prototypes), and the J-20's tails are canted way back and are all moving which are more similar to the F-117's. There have been pictures taken from so many angles now I'd say it's impossible for anyone to PS elements from all those aircraft into such a convincing, real picture over and over again in so many angles and environments and light shades.
The fighter has ventral fins which at least from the angle view of the pictures do not have the same angle of the fins, the canards have another angle with respect the engine nacelles reflecting a poor treatement for stealth, the canards tailplanes and wings in all the rest of stealth fighters are aligned on the same horizontal plane to keep a radar reflection on the same direction and same angle.
Yeah, edge alignment I know -- but unless we get a clear picture of the plane from the top or bottom it's far too early to be commenting about how well the alignment goes for stealth.
It has round nozzles, reflecting poor stealth at the end of the aircraft.
Yeah but the rest of it seems alright. Besides PAK FA has round nozzles too, and these engines aren't the final WS-15 either (though by the sounds of things they'll be going for a conventionally shaped, 3D TVC nozzle for WS-15 so the current rear end may look similar to the final thing).
So with blur pictures it is hard for me to tell if it is a real aircraft.
If it is well sooner or later we will know, if it is well i guess it is more like a technology demostrator but it shows still not a mature design and more the product of the imagination of fans and possible CG image that is these days is not so hard to make even at different angles since many programs use 3D to create images.
(Forgive me if I sound frustrated)
Technology demonstrator?? Like what, the YF-22 or YF-23? Or may Su-47 and Mig 1.44? They wouldn't be putting that fancy paint scheme and inviting all the heads of state, previosu company bosses and such to come over if it were just that. And all the chatter points to this being a prototype, and nothing being mentioned of it a tech demonstrator.
This is the J-20 prototype as much as... the current PAK FA prototypes are prototypes. Phew.
The whole CG/photoshop idea (in terms of if the pictures are real) is reasonable considering how many cruddy photoshops we've seen over the years. But with all these angles and environment's we're getting the plane from.... well no person would go to such lengths.
Do you remember when the J-10B pictures first came out almost two years ago? Everyone was screaming that it was a photoshop (and me too, initially). People pointed out inconsistencies in colour, blurriness and what not but now it's accepted fact.
