"China’s Super Fighter Comes Online — With Inferior Engines" Topic

"The J-20 must make do with older, lower power engines until new ones are developed.

China's first fifth-generation fighter, the J-20, is finally operational, but the jet already has one known flaw: it uses engines that produce less thrust than originally anticipated. The engine meant for the stealth fighter has experienced serious developmental delays, forcing the use of a less powerful engine. The result is an airplane that can't quite live up to its potential, for now.

The Chengdu J-20 was first seen by the outside world in 2011, when it was observed during a visit to China by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Chinese aerospace giant Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation started development of a heavy, stealthy fighter in the 1990s, known as the J-XX, and the aircraft's advanced features stunned experts who believed China did not have the technological prowess to design such a plane…"

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Amicalement
Armand

"Appear weak when you are strong"
Sun Tzu

Dan

Dan- Unless Sun Tzu has a degree in engineering, all the pithy platitudes in the world aren't going to make up for under powered engines.

The J-20 must make do with older, lower power engines until new ones are developed.

With the PRC's penchant for industrial espionage, that shouldn't take long.

It's not the industrial espionage that is causing problems, it's the quality control.

Chinese engines last about 1/10 as long as the Russian engines they're copied from. maybe 50 hours, when the Russian engines last 500. US engines in the same power category and design vintage last about 2500 hours (though US engines are rated by number of power cycles, not hours).

Chinese engines also take much longer to spool up to full power, which means that their rotating sections are much heavier than even Russian engines. This would indicate steel parts instead of titanium or composite.

Now, when the Chinese figure out how to make "Made in China" mean "best build quality in the world", they will be a terrifying enemy. But as long as "Made in China" means "cheap crap" it's not much of a threat.

Glup!….

Amicalement
Armand

Maybe Dan has a point. It may only be a matter of time.

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In the meantime they've just fed our sense of complacency a bit more.

Dan
PS. "It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled." – often attributed to Mark Twain

I use to work for a computer chip foundry and we would send some of our product to China for finial testing due to cost.
However we still maintained a test capability of our own because many of the contracts stipulated that final test not be sent to China because their QC was so very bad.

CC, do you have a system for keeping all your conspiracy theories straight?

Lion – China can make anything you want, best quality or shitty. It's all in how much you're willing to pay.

China can make anything you want, best quality or shitty. It's all in how much you're willing to pay.

More like how much time and money you're willing to spend watching them like a hawk. Their QC sucks. Period. On some things, their lax quality is workable (if barely). For things like jet engines, not so much.

Jdginaz: "CC, do you have a system for keeping all your conspiracy theories straight?"

It's not that hard, really. There are patterns to everything, and coincidence becomes a much rarer thing the more interconnected we become.

Dan

Apple pays China an arm and a leg for their stuff, and it's still pretty marginal in quality (some are good, some not).

You'd think that the PRC government could enforce best-quality QA for their top-line fighter, even if it came down to soldiers pointing guns at people.

Money and real freedoms are much better incentives. The prospect of continued slavery and abuse isn't.

Dan