Wednesday, July 22, 2009

New J-10B photos out

Just this weekend, we got some new photos of J-10B in the PLAAF paint job coming out. It looks like it has finished some of the required testing and will be going over to CFTE at Yanliang to test very soon. Also, the prototype # is also kind of interesting:
The original J-10 prototype was 1001
The original J-10S prototype was 1021
Now, the first J-10B prototype is 1031
Here are the photos, I think the photo of the intake is great. Now, if we can only get a more close-up look at it. From far-out, it looks like the workmanship on J-10B is better than that of J-10A.



6 comments:

duskylim said...

If its a pre-production model why is the pitot tube in the nose still so long? I would have thought that they would reduce its length before they sent it to the test guys.

Its nice to see that they offset the IRST ball to the right of center, freeing up the pilot's view over the nose - just like in the later model MiG 35's.

I wonder how much benefit the use of the DSI made? Crobato said that it will be most beneficial in the sub-sonic range especially during acceleration and climb.

We can only wait for the next airshow to see how different she is from the J10A.

duskylim said...

If its a pre-production model why is the pitot tube in the nose still so long? I would have thought that they would reduce its length before they sent it to the test guys.

Its nice to see that they offset the IRST ball to the right of center, freeing up the pilot's view over the nose - just like in the later model MiG 35's.

I wonder how much benefit the use of the DSI made? Crobato said that it will be most beneficial in the sub-sonic range especially during acceleration and climb.

We can only wait for the next airshow to see how different she is from the J10A.

duskylim said...

If its a pre-production model why is the pitot tube in the nose still so long? I would have thought that they would reduce its length before they sent it to the test guys.

Its nice to see that they offset the IRST ball to the right of center, freeing up the pilot's view over the nose - just like in the later model MiG 35's.

I wonder how much benefit the use of the DSI made? Crobato said that it will be most beneficial in the sub-sonic range especially during acceleration and climb.

We can only wait for the next airshow to see how different she is from the J10A.

Feng said...

I think DSI is good in that it reduces the weight of the intake, helping the T/W ratio a little bit. The original one was really complex and heavy. J-10B probably won't have the kind of supersonic flight performance J-10A had, but it was sacrificed for possibly better subsonic performance + lower radar reflection from the intake + weight saving that could be used to add things like IRST.

I don't think it's pre-production model, I think it's still doing flight trials. After all, it only first flied in December.

timurelame said...

Is the PLA still interested in acquiring any Russian planes in the future?

Why do you think the PLA declined importing the Tu22M3?

jxz said...

@ timurelame: I think it's obvious that PLA will continue to acquire Russian airplanes. In particular they will need the large transports like IL-86 and lots of heavy-lifting helicopters; the domestic alternatives are just not there yet, and US and European countries still cannot sell to PLA. I believe that PLAN will ultimately acquire at least one batch of the Su-33 at a good price.

Tu-22 really doesn't fit into China's strategic mission statement. They are not trying to become another USSR-like superpower, at least they don't want to be perceived that way. But the possesion of Tu-22 says exactly the opposite: we are here to be a formidable enemy to the US.