highsea

Well, all planes look pretty nappy in primer.

What I noticed was the loose wires hanging down in the 3rd cockpit shot, on what looks like a canopy solonoid, and again under the MFD's. This is supposed to be a flying ptototype? That's a little scary...

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JBodnar39

The pictures are nice but I could paint a monkey's ass to look nice too. Can it fly and fight? So far neither. Pakistan is looking at this thing not because it is a "great" fighter but because they want a stop-gap against possible future weapons embargos from the west and also to improve their own domestic aircraft production and support systems.

Neo

Cool pics!
Here's a promo video of FC-1/JF-17.
Enjoy!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...25224735284123

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American_Raider

Pakistan to start production of JF-17 air crafts

ISLAMABAD, May 10 (Online): Pakistan will start production of its sophisticated fighter aircraft JF-17 Thunder from this year.

This was said by Air Marshal Aurang Zeb Khan, chairman Pakistan Aeronautical complex board and Air Vice Marshall Shahid Latif, chief project director of JF-17 during a briefing to the journalists here Monday.

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http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=104810

I wonder how LCA is doing?

tphuang

what standard do you use? If you are evaluating it against other really cheap fighters, it won't fare badly. But if you are evaluating it against modern fighters, it will probably be the worst military fighter in production when it does come into production.

indianguy4u

Dont u worry for LCA, u should worry more about which engine plus radar plus avionic suite is finalised for ur thundaarr.

BTW i am wondering as to how an fighter jet will take to sky without an engine .

May below pic will provide a clue .

*EDIT: Sorry, picture contained race related wording.

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xinhui

Col,

we really don't know what PLAAF is doing or thinking. (we have a better idea what PLANAF is doing). They want a localized Su-27 with secondary ground attack capability as required by CMC. However, their primary mission, even today is still air defense, not ground attack, especally for the imported expensive birds. I think JH-7A would fit the profile of a ground attacker nicely. I posted on my blog of a Jh-7a loaded with 12 250KG of iron bombs. simply put, they can replace their Jh-7A easier then Su-xx.

b4 we talk about what they are buying, it is helpful to look at what role they want to play.

xinhui

badguy 2000 posted

" it is reported that now there are about over 1 hundred JH7 in PLAN airforce and several dozen in PLA airforce "


three regiments according to PLAAF TOE means 24x3 at best, that is not 100. also, the North sea fleet had not replace their H-5 with JH-7A completely yet. There are still PLAdaily photos with H-5 as recently as Dec 2005. PLANAF simply does not have the money as PLAAF. You can check Huitong on this, PLANAF can't not fill two full regiments of Jh-7 as there were not enought 202 turbo fans engines out there, second order from England not withstanding. IMHO, there are one and half regt of Jh-7 and half regiment of Jh-7a in service with PLANAF.

Also noted, there is no additional orders of SU-30 or any fighters from Russian recently and yet there is no confirm additional regiments of Jh-7A in service with both PLAAF nor PLANAF. This means only one thing, CMC is waiting for eval of Jh-7A to be completed before making final decision.

PLA has a different model of testing new equippments from that of the West, if you are a PLA watcher you should know what I mean. Like that of Type 98 MBT, PLA actually place a small order and test it with one of its best operational unit then fix all the buys before mess production. Jh-7A follows the same rule.

Noted that HQ-7 SAM, Type 88B MBT, Type 96 MBT, Type 98 MBT, TYpe 99 MBT, Type 89 SP-ATG, HQ-61 SAM, TYpe 69 MBT, VAS VMS C3I (back inthe 1980s) system, Su-27 within 1st air division, etc. all were tested with one of PLA's elite units (most of hte case, 38th Group Army) before enter general service. I cited the above examples off my head but I can dig up more if you like.

Personally, I think CMC will select Jh-7A as a replacement for Q-5 but not until the WS-9 prove to be a scuessful design. that will take some time to test.

Zhang Fei

Actually, neither the production technology for the toys nor their designs are indigenous to China - all were imported from elsewhere. China has neither the production technology nor the blueprints for modern fighter aircraft. This is why it'll be a long hard slog for the Chinese to catch up.

gunnut

The toughtest part is the engine. Only a handful of countries on this earth can build high performance turbofans, let alone designing them.