"Politics is war without bloodshed, while war is politics with bloodshed."
- Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Tse-Tung

The Chengdu J-20 is a stealth, twinjet, fifth-generation fighter aircraft developed by China's Chengdu Aerospace Corporation for the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). The J-20 made its first flight on January 11th, 2011, and entered initial operational capability phase in March 2017, according to state media.

The J-20 has a long and wide fuselage, with the chiseled nose section and a frameless canopy resembling that of the F-22 Raptor. Immediately behind the cockpit are low observable intakes. All-moving canard surfaces with pronounced dihedral are placed behind the intakes, followed by leading edge extensions merging into delta wing with forward-swept trailing edges. The aft section features twin, outward canted all-moving fins, short but deep ventral strakes, and conventional round engine exhausts.

One important design criterion for the J-20 describes high instability. This requires sustained pitch authority at a high angle of attack, in which a conventional tail-plane would lose effectiveness due to stalling. On the other hand, a canard can deflect opposite to the angle of attack, avoiding stall and thereby maintaining control. A canard design is also known to provide good supersonic performance, excellent supersonic and transonic turn performance, and improved short-field landing performance compared to the conventional delta wing design.

Leading edge extensions and body lift are incorporated to enhance performance in a canard layout. This combination is said by the designer to generate 1.2 times the lift of an ordinary canard delta, and 1.8 times more lift than an equivalent sized pure delta configuration. The designer claims such a combination allows the use of a smaller wing, reducing supersonic drag without compromising transonic lift-to-drag characteristics that are crucial to the aircraft's turn performance.

According to the Jamestown Foundation, the J-20 has the potential for development into a high performance stealth aircraft comparable to the F-22 Raptor, if given appropriate engines.

Pictured here is a 1:72 scale replica of a PLAAF Chengdu J-20 "Mighty Dragon" stealth fighter. Sold Out!

Dimensions:
Wingspan: 6-3/4-inches
Length: 10-1/4-inches

Release Date: August 2020

Historical Account: "Shining a Light on the Hidden" - Sporting some but not all stealthy characteristics, observers outside of China were not able to reach a consensus on the J-20's primary role. Based on initial photographs with focus on the aircraft's size, early speculations referred to the J-20 as an F-111 equivalent with little to no air-to-air ability. Others saw the J-20 as a potential air superiority fighter once appropriate engines become available. More recent speculations refer to the J-20 as an air-to-air fighter with an emphasis on forward stealth, high-speed aerodynamics, range, and adequate agility. The J-20 with its long range missile armament could threaten vulnerable tankers and ISR/C2 platforms such as the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker and Boeing E-3 Sentry AWACS, depriving Washington of radar coverage and strike range. However one of these targets, the Northrop Grumman E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, is reported to be optimized for spotting fighter sized stealth aircraft such as the J-20.

After the deployment announcement, several analysts noted that experience that the PLAAF will gain with the J-20 will give China a significant edge over India, Japan, and South Korea, which have struggled to design and produce their own fifth-generation fighters on schedule. However, despite the failure of their indigenous projects, Japan and South Korea operate the imported F-35A, negating this potential technological disparity. United States Marine Corps created a full-scale replica (FSR) of a Chengdu J-20 on December 2018. The replica was spotted parked outside the Air Dominance Center at Savannah Hilton Head Airport in Georgia. The United States Marine Corps later confirmed that the aircraft was built for training.