Chinese Stealth Fighter Joins Ground Attack Fighter/Bomber

[skb12172]

Sounds like they have copied some of the obvious exterior design elements, without the advanced engines or electronics. Probably a very crude design, but still a step forward. Opinions?

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/11/01 ... =obnetwork

[Highspeed]

Well, it's got the chines ( no pun ! ) and inward canted fins, but I don't think that means much.
Stealth is one area of engineering where you can't say " if it looks like, then it is right " - it's more like " if it looks right to a supercomputer which has crunched the numbers from countless experiments on a highly instrumented test range and that data has tentatively been confirmed in real world tests, then it is right "

Just to throw the question back at you - what do we REALLY know about the capabilities of modern Western military radars ?

[Yogimus]

The commies (russian/chinese/korea) are well known to slap a new skin on an old MiG. They are mostly harmless. You should get concerned when their models have solved the intrinsic design flaws of their eastern counterparts, because that means they are actually engineering and innovating instead of studying photos and copying. Our biggest threats will be when actual power-plants are being made from scratch. (Jet engines of a home design)

[Highspeed]

Our biggest threats will be when actual power-plants are being made from scratch. (Jet engines of a home design)

Yeah - before Belenko's defection the Mig-25 was considered with a lot of awe and trepidation in the West. And then it became clear that if it went anywhere near it's top speed it required two new engines before it's next flight.

[MiddleAgedKen]

Yeah - before Belenko's defection the Mig-25 was considered with a lot of awe and trepidation in the West. And then it became clear that if it went anywhere near it's top speed it required two new engines before it's next flight.

Considering the job it was originally intended to do: If they didn't get it done the first sortie, they wouldn't need to worry about a second.

[Yogimus]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ in flight

[Jericho941]

The MiG-25 amuses me greatly, being one of the increasingly large guns pulled out in one of the more Looney Tunes-ish moments of the Cold War, kicked off mostly on hype.

"Valkyrie!"
"MiG-25!"
"F-15A!"
"Su-27!"
"Wait, we can't afford enough of these. F-16!"
"Neither can we! MiG-29!"
"Uhhh... stealth fighter? We guess?"
"Yeah, let us get back to you in twenty years."

IOW: Duck season, rabbit season...

[bubblewhip]

The MiG-25 amuses me greatly, being one of the increasingly large guns pulled out in one of the more Looney Tunes-ish moments of the Cold War, kicked off mostly on hype.

It's especially hilarious that the Mig-25 and it's successor the Mig-31 were not particularly good dog fighters.

Still, one of the best looking aircraft to date though.

[bubblewhip]

The Mig-25 wasn't a dogfighter at all. It had a turn rate comparable to a supertanker. It had a loaded g limit of 2.2g, and an absolute g-limit of 4.5g.

The plane literally could not dogfight at all, in any meaningful sense of the term.

The Mig-31 was somewhat better.

I know, but early reports thought that the Mig-25 were high performance dog-fighters due to their large wing area. It wasn't until they actually got one, they found how much of a dog it was.

[Cybrludite]

The Mig-25 wasn't a dogfighter at all. It had a turn rate comparable to a supertanker. It had a loaded g limit of 2.2g, and an absolute g-limit of 4.5g.

The plane literally could not dogfight at all, in any meaningful sense of the term.

The Mig-31 was somewhat better.

I know, but early reports thought that the Mig-25 were high performance dog-fighters due to their large wing area. It wasn't until they actually got one, they found how much of a dog it was.

It was fairly good at the time for its intended job: A Mach 2.8 mobile SAM battery.