The concept of a stealth fighter with a deformable tail aerodynamic layout proposed by a Chinese scientific research institute has sparked heated discussions in the outside world, and a considerable number of people regard it as a technical foresight made by the PLA on the sixth-generation aircraft project.
Combined with the strategic background that both China and the United States are actively exploring the development route of the sixth-generation aircraft, this speculation is not necessarily wrong. And on the whole, this latest scheme is more feasible at the project engineering level than another well-known literary and creative work, the "White Emperor" fighter.
【Aerodynamic layout model of a certain type of variable tail in China】
Recently, as the military budget plans for the new fiscal year have been formulated one after another, the relevant news about the development of the sixth-generation fighter has also become the focus of attention from the outside world.
On the one hand, the U.S. will devote more of its budget to the NGAD program in FY25, which has the intention of continuing to lead the world in the field of sixth-generation aircraft. On the other hand, other countries are not to be outdone and have launched their own sixth-generation aircraft project concepts.
For example, in China, in recent years, various domestic research institutes have published countless related papers, and the design concepts proposed are not only no less than those in the United States, but some of the designs are quite radical. For example, in the paper "Research on the Aero-Stealth Characteristics of a Variant Tail", the researchers proposed the concept of a small-aspect ratio variant flying wing layout aircraft, which can make the airframe have the excellent stealth performance of a flying wing fighter and allow it to fly at Mach 2 speeds.
[A small aspect ratio variant flying wing layout aircraft concept]
In addition to China, there is also the "Future Air Combat System (FCAS)" project jointly participated by the United Kingdom, Italy, and Japan, as well as the rumored "MiG-41" fighter project of Russia. Even Saab, Sweden's long-established airline, intends to get involved in the sixth-generation aircraft issue.
However, although the vast majority of the leading aviation powers have some ideas about sixth-generation aircraft, among these countries, only China and the United States are really capable of challenging this field.
[The "White Emperor" aerospace fighter was once considered one of the technical routes of China's sixth-generation aircraft]
After all, at the 2022 Zhuhai Air Show, China has disclosed several concept drawings and CG videos of tailless stealth fighters. In addition, the "White Emperor" sci-fi fighter model produced by AVIC was once mistaken by the outside world for the domestic sixth-generation aircraft model, and the fact that China is the biggest opponent of the United States in the field of sixth-generation aircraft has become a consensus, and the discussion about China's sixth-generation aircraft will inevitably break out.
For China's sixth-generation aircraft, the question that the outside world is most concerned about is naturally what kind of performance this aircraft will rely on to reach the "sixth-generation" level that can build a generational advantage over the existing fifth-generation institutions. Because don't look at the fact that all countries in the world are actively tinkering with sixth-generation aircraft, for fear of being led by rival countries in this field. However, in terms of how to define a sixth-generation aircraft, countries do not actually have a clear standard. Unlike fifth-generation aircraft, as long as the stealth performance meets the standard, it is counted.
Of course, it is not surprising that this kind of problem will occur, and the core of the problem lies in the fact that countries have not yet developed a sixth-generation aircraft that can be used as a standard.
[Concept diagram of the American NGAD fighter]
In fact, stealth performance can become the standard for measuring fifth-generation aircraft, and the reason is that the F-22 fighter with stealth performance is the world's first fifth-generation aircraft, and it has confirmed that stealth performance is a performance that can build a generation difference for non-stealth fighters. However, the sixth-generation aircraft currently does not have such a benchmark that can be used as a reference, and countries can only slowly explore it on their own.
On this issue, the United States has chosen to focus on strengthening the ability of stealth and UAV cooperation in the NGAD fighter, trying to build it into a comprehensive anti-aircraft platform that has both unmanned and manned combat capabilities and can carry out penetrating operations.
In contrast, China clearly prefers the speed and range performance of its fighters. Many public papers have discussed how to increase the maximum flight speed of the airframe to the hypersonic field of Mach 2~3 or even Mach 5~6 while ensuring the stealth performance of the airframe, and pursue a larger range.
The aforementioned paper "Research on the aerodynamic-stealth characteristics of a variant tail" is a typical example, and the concept of the sixth-generation aircraft disclosed by AVIC at the Zhuhai Airshow also uses a similar concept.
[Imagination of the domestic sixth-generation aircraft in the AVIC promotional video]
The reason for this difference between China and the United States in sixth-generation aircraft is likely to lie in their respective technological accumulation. After all, in terms of the accumulation of hypersonic technology, China has opened a clear gap with the United States. This allows us to integrate existing hypersonic technology on sixth-generation aircraft, which the United States will need to spend a lot of time laying a solid foundation for advanced technology if it wants to do so.
This is obviously not in line with the strategic needs of the United States to develop a sixth-generation aircraft before China, so it has become an inevitable choice for Boeing and Loma to focus on strengthening stealth performance and UAV coordination.
However, due to the lack of sufficient comparison, we do not know which choice is better between China and the United States. But what is certain is that compared with the "White Emperor" fighter model exhibited at the Zhuhai Air Show, the domestic sixth-generation aircraft envisaged in the paper seems to be closer to reality and can be realized at the engineering level, but the overall aerodynamic layout is more radical than the "White Emperor" that has not left the conventional layout category, like an alien aircraft.
[White Emperor fighter model, the idea still does not leave the scope of conventional layout]
In addition, with China's huge industrial and scientific research system, China's sixth-generation aircraft research and development time is likely to be shorter than the outside world thinks, and the output after finalization is also expected to reach a high level.
After all, as early as last year, external analysts said that once China's J-20 fighter is mass-produced at full speed, its production capacity is expected to exceed 100 aircraft. If the sixth-generation aircraft really appears, then there is no reason why we should not increase the production capacity of this type of fighter to the same level as the J-20.
Of course, considering that the sixth-generation aircraft in China and the United States are in the development stage, it is estimated that the matter of mass production and service will have to wait for a few more years or more than ten years. But in any case, China has carved out its own development path on this issue, and we just need to wait for the good news.