China's sixth-generation fighter may have been unveiled? Based on the relevant information on the Internet, in the first half of 2023, a fighter with a forward-swept wing and no vertical tail characteristics was exposed.
It is reported that this fighter has the ability to "transform" in the air, and the peculiar shape makes military fans call it a feast for their eyes, today let's take a look at what China's sixth-generation fighter may be?
The forward-swept wing structure is novel
The first is the forward-swept wing and no vertical tail characteristics, of which the concept of forward-swept wing aircraft has been proposed as early as the last century, and the feasibility of the American X-29A aircraft has been verified.
Although it did not eventually enter service, it also greatly increased the human exploration of forward-swept wing aircraft.
[U.S. forward-swept wing fighters]
In contrast to the traditional swept wing, the main feature of the forward-swept wing is that the wingtip part points to the front of the aircraft.
Although this design has many technical and post-flight problems, it excels in some aspects because of its unique aerodynamic advantages.
First of all, we need to make it clear that it is designed to solve specific flight problems, just like the swept wing, but the two are very different.
Forwardswept wings offer significant advantages in enhancing aircraft maneuverability at low speeds and improving take-off and landing performance.
[Forward-swept wing aircraft is feasible]
This is because the forward-swept wing layout causes the wingtip vortex to move inwards of the fuselage, providing a high lift efficiency that helps the aircraft to fly steadily at slower speeds, especially in air combat where high maneuverability is required, or when taking off and landing short distances.
This also allows the forward-swept wing aircraft to have better handling stability, as the wingtips are located in front of the wing roots, so the wingtip area is less prone to stalling when the aircraft increases the angle of attack.
This design allows the aircraft to maintain good controllability even at low speeds and high angles of attack.
This feature is extremely important in aerial combat, as it allows the fighter to be more stable and swift when approaching enemy aircraft or performing emergency evasive maneuvers.
At the same time, the forward-swept wing layout helps to improve the longitudinal static stability of the aircraft, which makes it easier for the aircraft to maintain balance in the longitudinal direction due to the forward wingtip and the aerodynamic center of the aircraft relative to the forward.
This is especially important when flying at high angles of attack, as it is related to the ability of the aircraft to effectively perform complex air combat maneuvers.
The forward-swept wing also improves the aircraft's performance in supersonic conditions, and while the advantage of the swept wing at these speeds is more significant, the forward-swept wing still provides better aerodynamic efficiency and reduces the noise generated by the aircraft while flying.
The forward-swept wing not only reduces noise, but also optimizes the thermal protection performance of the aircraft to a certain extent.
No vertical tail is the general trend
In addition, there is a non-vertical tail structure, which is considered by many military fans to be the "standard" of the sixth-generation fighter, because the non-vertical tail structure can greatly increase the upper limit of the fighter and make the performance of the fighter meet the expected standards.
The aerodynamic efficiency of a fighter with a vertical tail removed will be improved by the reduction of parts, the presence of a vertical tail will increase the drag of the aircraft, and the design without a vertical tail will reduce the aerodynamic drag because fewer parts are exposed to the outer surface of the aircraft.
This is beneficial for both speed and fuel consumption, and in some designs, the aerodynamic layout of the aircraft without a vertical tail can optimize the lift distribution of the aircraft to a more desirable state, further improving the lift-to-drag ratio of the aircraft for efficient flight.
【Aircraft without vertical tail structure】
In addition, the lack of vertical tail has a positive effect on the agility of the aircraft, as the traditional vertical tail design increases the aircraft's moment of inertia and makes it slower to respond when performing pitch and yaw maneuvers.
The tail-free design helps to reduce the aircraft's moment of inertia, making the fighter more agile in the air, able to respond quickly to the pilot's control, and perform delicate and rapid maneuvers, which is especially important in close air combat.
In other words, it is hard to imagine how far the sixth-generation fighter will have significantly more maneuverability than the fifth-generation fighter after removing the vertical tail.
Of course, even now, humans have achieved vertical tail flight of airplanes, the most representative of which are the American B2 and B21 bombers.
After losing the vertical tail, the B2 adopts an advanced flight control system to achieve the purpose of replacing the vertical tail.
Finally, the tailless structure can effectively improve the stealth of the fighter, because the cross-section of the aircraft without a vertical tail is smaller and less easily detected by the enemy's radar system.
In the "high-pressure" environment of modern warfare, stealth performance has increasingly become the focus of fighter design considerations, and there is a lot to be done in this field without vertical tails.
It can be seen from this that whether it is from the perspective of technological development or from the needs of modern warfare, the layout of fighters without vertical tails is the "general trend".
Can "transform" the fighter
Of course, China's sixth-generation fighter may not be a single layout structure, J-20 chief designer Yang Wei once revealed that the sixth-generation fighter can be "deformed" according to the actual situation.
This is not about the transformation from a fighter plane to a humanoid Gundam like a science fiction movie, but about making corresponding changes to its aerodynamic layout according to the different flight environments.
For example, when flying at top speed, the drag brought by the forward-swept layout is too great, and by changing the wing structure to a swept wing layout, the performance of the sixth-generation fighter can be brought into full play to the greatest extent while adapting to different flight environments.
[China's sixth-generation fighter may look like this]
Don't think this is magical, the J-20 fighter currently in service on the mainland uses the "canard wing with side strip wing design" has strong flexibility and can be steered as needed.
However, more than ten years have passed since the first flight of the J-20, and the mainland's technology will certainly not remain at the technical level at that time.
Therefore, we also have the basic conditions for realization.
In fact, as far as China is concerned, we have a lot of basic technical conditions for sixth-generation fighters, and our fifth-generation fighters have become mature, so China will have great hopes of becoming the first country in the world to build a sixth-generation fighter in the true sense.
Resources:
[1] The Paper: "Technological丨Chinese and American sixth-generation aircraft have different ideas, and each has its own focus to improve survivability"
[2] China Military Network: "Where is the Road of the New Generation of Fighters - Prediction and Analysis of the Standards of Russia's "Sixth Generation" Fighter