As China's first large aircraft carrier Fujian is about to undergo its first sea trial, the J-35 stealth carrier-based aircraft supporting the Fujian ship is also undergoing intensive flight test work, and the majority of military fans are eagerly looking forward to the highlight moment of the J-35 catapulting and taking off in the Fujian ship. However, the Indian media, which has always been biased against China's military products, was pleasantly surprised to find that the J-35 emitted billowing black smoke during the test flight, which seemed to make the Indian media grasp the "soft underbelly" of the J-35.
Video released by Indian media
Just recently, India's "Defense Research" website shared a video of the J-35, and made a big mockery of the phenomenon of the J-35 emitting black smoke from the engine when the video is flying. The Indian media believes that the black smoke emitted by the J-35 engine itself is abnormal, which shows that there is a big problem with the engine and it is easy to malfunction, and the black smoke will also destroy the stealth performance of the J-35, which will make it easy for the enemy to find the traces of the J-35.
According to the analysis of the Indian media, the engine used in the J-35 fighter is imitated from the Russian RD-93 engine, but due to China's insufficient prevention ability and poor quality, resulting in insufficient fuel combustion and a large amount of black smoke, the J-35 actually does not have stealth capabilities at all.
Therefore, we can get two points of view from the reports of the Indian media, one is that the J-35 fighter emits black smoke because of engine performance problems, and the other is that the black smoke will have a great impact on the stealth performance of the J-35. So is the actual situation really what the Indian media said?
We all know that the J-35 stealth fighter is developed from the FC-31 "Huying" fighter developed by Shen Fei, after many upgrades and improvements, these two fighters have undergone significant changes in appearance, and the later J-35 is more suitable for the operating environment on the aircraft carrier, and has been favored by the Chinese Navy. However, at the beginning of the development of the FC-31 "Huying" fighter, the mainland did not have a small bypass ratio medium thrust engine suitable for this fighter, and in order to speed up the development, it could only use the RD-93 engine imported from Russia, and this engine was widely equipped on various types of MiG-29 fighters.
However, in order to highlight the low failure rate and improve maintenance efficiency, the former Soviet Union used the centrifugal oil injection technology widely used in early jet engines and a relatively simple annular combustion chamber when designing the RD-93 engine, the biggest advantage of this design is simple processing and low cost. The working principle of centrifugal oil injection technology is relatively simple, the oil becomes fine droplets or mist into the combustion chamber under the action of high-speed rotating centrifugal force, generally speaking, as long as the engine does not stop, it can work stably.
However, the biggest disadvantage of centrifugal oil injection technology is that the amount of fuel intake cannot be controlled, when the pilot suddenly turns on the afterburner, the fuel intake of the engine combustion chamber will increase sharply, and the fuel will be inadequately burned, and the engine will emit billowing black smoke. This phenomenon is basically the same as the cause of black smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe when the car slams on the accelerator, which is caused by the phenomenon of oil enrichment.
It is precisely because of this that we can often see all kinds of MiG-29 fighters emitting billowing black smoke when taking off and when turning on afterburner, and this phenomenon is inevitable for FC-31 "Hawk" fighters that also use RD-93 engines.
However, it is not difficult to see from a closer look at the J-35 test flight video released by the Indian media that the J-35 has not been emitting black smoke during the flight, but has regular intermittent smoke, and the black smoke is not very obvious from a visual point of view, obviously the black smoke from the J-35 test flight is not the same thing as the oil-rich problem of the RD-93 engine.
According to the latest information, the J-35 may have been replaced with a turbofan-19 engine, which belongs to the fourth generation of small bypass ratio medium thrust engine, with a maximum thrust of more than 10 tons, and a military thrust of about 8 tons, with a thrust-to-weight ratio of more than 10, which can provide sufficient power for the J-35. In terms of core technology, the turbofan-19 has greatly surpassed the Russian-made RD-93 engine, and naturally there will be no problem of black smoke from the engine, and from the test flight dynamics of the J-35 in recent years, we basically can't see the phenomenon of black smoke.
Therefore, there is only one possibility left for the reason why the J-35 engine emits black smoke at low altitude, that is, it is conducting an air oil discharge test. The purpose of this type of aerial fuel discharge is usually a safety measure that must be carried out in the event of a breakdown and a forced landing, because the fuel discharge can reduce the fuel stock in the tank, so as not to cause a large amount of fuel leakage and cause a fire in the event of an unsuccessful forced landing, and can protect the pilot or other fighters and airport facilities as much as possible. If the fighter is refueling in the air, then from the bottom it is that the engine will emit a puff of black smoke, and the video of the J-35 emitting black smoke released by the Indian media is very consistent with the phenomenon of refueling in the air.
Some analysts believe that the J-35's aerial oil discharge experiment means that this fighter is not far from service, and the Indian media's ridicule of the J-35 can only show that the Indian media lacks professional knowledge and is purely black for the sake of black.
As for the Indian media's statement that the J-35 emitting black smoke will affect stealth, it makes people doubt the IQ of relevant people in India. The stealth of the stealth fighter is not visual stealth, but radar stealth, that is to say, it is difficult for radar to detect stealth fighters, and in an over-the-horizon environment, the J-35 releases some fuel and will not affect stealth performance.
In fact, we can also understand the "good intentions" of the Indian media, after all, India's self-developed "Kaveli" turbofan engine project for decades has been launched, and its aircraft carrier equipped with MiG-29K and LCA "Brilliant" fighters have a big gap with the J-35 in terms of performance, which will definitely touch the strong self-esteem of some Indian people, and it is not difficult for us to understand why the Indian media distorted the interpretation of the normal flight test phenomenon of the J-35.