J-XX

Is China entering the ‘5th gen’ fighter club?

The recent appearance and subsequent first flight of what appears to be a Chinese fifth generation combat aircraft has raised many more questions than it has answered.

Grainy images of the aircraft, quickly dubbed J-XX or J-20 by western observers in the absence of an official designation, began appearing on Chinese military blog sites in mid December. These first images were reportedly taken from beyond the fence line of Chengdu’s Huang Tian Ba airport in the country’s southwest, and showed a large, twin engined combat aircraft with forward canards, a wide centrerear fuselage with a flat underside, F-22- like chined edges on the forward fuselage, twin canted vertical stabilisers, serrated or ‘saw-tooth’ undercarriage door edges, and a black or very dark grey paint scheme with few markings (apart from the serial ‘2001’) or distinguishable features. Some photos show different design engine tail pipes, perhaps suggesting more than one aircraft is in development.