not really, but judging by the unpainted antennas, no-one’s done it.and then the composite is painted on straight away.
Well i go off of what i read in Rupprecht’s books, i think the claims are from the Red Dragon Flankers book.
Based on this book, it’s just a guess. And most likely the power pack is still metal. Composites could have been used in the landing gear flaps, brake shield, flaperons.
Although Chinese wikipedia says empty weight of 16380kg, which is heavier than the base Su-27 at 16000kg
Yeah that is just J-11B, it does mention reports with the claims, i would have to personally ask the author to point the reports… I’ll trust his book and cut myself some work.
Wikipedia is not a good source, even if it is Chinese wikipedia.
J-11B is lighter than J-11A. J-11A is heavier than base Su-27 from what I know.
Any sources?
J-11A is heavier due to the reinforced landing gear. We also have that modelled in-game, iirc 500kg heavier.
Video that documents fabrication of materials for J-11B.
600kg last time I checked
Yes, and that is a pretty noticeable hit sometimes in terms of flight performance.
Thank you
1 Like
I think T has adapted for catapult and B hasn’t?
We know that the T is CATOBAR capable, whether the B is or isn’t we still don’t fully know. I see the T as the fighter for Fujian and the B as a replacement for the normal J-15s of the Liaoning and Shandong.
The Abrams dropped two tons of weight from electronics alone when switching to fiber optics and it’s not very large. The total mass is something like 160,000+ pounds. A fully loaded Su-33 is 90-100k.
The Chinese considerably upgraded electronics in these fighters after the mid 2000’s, this very easily explains the weight reduction without the use of composites.
1 Like
He is a German who is a fan of sino airplanes. All of his information and sources come from the sino defense forum and is no more credible than BBCRF as a direct source.
1 Like
It is still an authored book, whether if it is accurate or not i honestly don’t care, we don’t have reliable ways of getting info when it comes to Chinese vehicles unless brochures are directly provided by them (export). The best book that could be used for Chinese aircrafts is this one:
Sadly, it stops at J-10A and J-11A.
3 Likes
Majority of Ruprecht’s sources are Janes and forum posts, he doesn’t even list the sources. It’s not a good source.
Actual photos and videos of Chinese equipment has provided plenty of solid information. From these we can visually inspect and determine the J-15 has an Su-33 airframe. I have not seen any place where it isn’t identical.
Further, there is no indication of composites use on J-15T. Weight reduction of 700kg is easily explained with modernized computer hardware and wiring.
1 Like
Those are literally claims that you’ve made based on your assumptions, you don’t know for sure.
I’m more than happy if you were to provide me other options when it comes to authored works. Photos from Chinese netizens are surely useful, as I’ve made great use of them in the suggestion for the J-15T (should be coming out soon hopefully) but cannot be considered as “sources”. Surely useful tools to observe but that doesn’t give us certainty in any sort of way. Either way it is eefy.
Don’t get me wrong, If I see the J-15T’s canted radome in a picture it surely can be a massive hint towards an AESA radar, more than likely connected to the same exact shape of the radome that we’ve seen on the J-11D. Does that give me certainty? No.
3 Likes
I actually emailed him and spoke with him personally on multiple occasions seeking information for the J-8 series fighters when I was working the report for lack of PL-11 on J-8F. Thanks for asking though before… making an assumption.
1 Like