Where did the J-12 go?
Those who are familiar with China's military aircraft know that the models of domestic military aircraft all start with the number "5", such as Chujiao 5, J-5, Qiang-5, Yun-5, Zhi-5, and H-5...... This older generation of domestic military aircraft is also known as the "Changkong 5 Sentai Team".
It is reported that there are two reasons for taking "5" as the starting number of aircraft models. First, it was inspired by the fact that the name of the first "Vermilion" Red Army was not called the 1st Army, but the 4th Army. Second, China's own design and manufacture of aircraft began in the 50s of the last century.
In 1991, China introduced the Su-27 heavy fighter from the former Soviet Union, changing the embarrassing and passive situation in which the fighters of the Chinese Air Force lagged behind the modern Air Force by a whole generation. In 2003, the domestic J-10 fighter was delivered to the troops, and the Chinese finally had their own third-generation multi-role, all-weather fighter. Prior to this, the Su-27SK fighter jet, which was produced under Russian license, was finalized as the J-11 and equipped with troops in 1998.
J-10 multi-role, all-weather fighter
The J-10 is there, the J-11 is also there, but what about the J-12? However, in the equipment series of China's air and naval aviation, no trace of the J-12 has been found. So, did the J-12 ever exist? If so, where did the J-12 go?
步入位于北京昌平小汤山附近的中国航空博物馆的大门，一架高高擎立的银白色歼击机最为引人注目，其身姿如同一把利剑刺向蓝天。 This is the J-12 fighter jet that people are looking for, although it has been quietly here for 35 years since the day the expo opened on November 11, 1989...... This article is about the little-known past of the J-12.
J-12 fighter - China Aviation Museum
Don't look at the number of J-12 models after J-10 and J-11, but its age is more than one generation older than J-10 and J-11. Its history dates back to the 60s of the last century.
In April 1969, the Chinese Air Force proposed the development of a "small fighter", that is, a small fighter with high mobility and flexibility, short take-off and landing, simple maintenance, and low cost. At that time, it was the Cultural Revolution, and the military put forward the demand for "small annihilation", which was expressed in terms of "adapting to the needs of the people's war and carrying out air guerrilla warfare". The so-called "guerrilla warfare in the air" means that "small annihilations" are like guerrillas in the air, and they can appear at any time in places where the enemy does not expect them. This requires that the "Xiao J" is an ultra-light front-line fighter with a weight of about 4 tons, which can be loaded on a truck for mobile transfer deployment. Aircraft performance requires good maneuverability, which is mainly reflected in the outstanding acceleration ability, climb and hovering performance. This "small J" is the later J-12.
It is worth noting that in the 60s of the 20th century, the world's new fighters were developing in the direction of large size, complete equipment and complex technology, such as F-14 fighters, F-15 fighters, MiG-27 fighters, Su-17 fighters, "Tornado" fighter schemes, Mirage F.1 fighters, Cub C.2 fighters, Saab-37 fighters, etc.... However, the development of this "small J-J" took a completely opposite path to that of the West and the Soviet Union, that is, by reducing the fuselage and reducing the take-off weight to effectively improve the maneuverability of the aircraft.
The task of developing the "small J-J" was officially issued to the Nanchang Aircraft Factory at the "8.25" meeting in 1969. As early as July 1969, before the official assignment of the mission, the Nanchang Aircraft Factory began to design the scheme. The chief designer of the aircraft was Lu Xiaopeng, who was the deputy director of the Nanfei Design Office at the time. He was also the chief engineer of the mainland's first-generation single-seat twin-engine jet attack aircraft, which was then called the "Eagle" 302 and later renamed the Strong 5. In August 1967, Lu Xiaopeng's overall plan for "small annihilation" was approved. Subsequently, after 1 year and 5 months of hard work, the detailed design, main wind tunnel test, body production, strength test and system simulation test were completed, and 3 prototypes were made. In March 1970, "Xiao J" officially had its big name "J-12". On December 26, 1970, Chairman Mao's 77th birthday, the J-12 took off for the first time and achieved a successful test flight.
The J-12 conducts the airtightness test of the overall fuel tank of the fuselage
On September 10, 1973, the J-12 made a report to the head of the Central Committee at Beijing Nanyuan Airport. Ye Jianying, Li Xiannian, Xu Xiangqian, Nie Rongzhen and other central leading comrades watched the performance. Unlike the average supersonic fighter that takes off and runs for at least a kilometer, the J-12 took off after only 500 meters on the runway before taking off. In the air, it can turn with a radius of 1140 meters, and the rate of climb can reach 180 meters / s. For this reason, Ye Jianying praised the J-12's maneuverable and flexible flight characteristics, and called it "Li Xiangyang in the air". Some people say that "Li Xiangyang in the air" is not Ye's "original", but first came from the mouth of Lin Liguo, the son of Lin Biao and the deputy director of the Air Division Operations Department at the time. On July 31, 1970, at the age of 25, he gave a speech for eight hours in the conference room on the 7th floor of the Air Division Building, which was the "lecture report" that was all the rage. In the report, the term "Li Xiangyang in the air" was mentioned for the first time.
A prototype of the J-12 performing a debriefing flight show at Nanyuan Airport
The development time of the J-12 is only 1 year and 5 months, which is a miracle in the development of supersonic fighters in the world. However, due to the rush of time and other reasons, many problems were still exposed during the test flight. To this end, in addition to making up the necessary tests, Chief Engineer Lu Xiaopeng also made more than 10 major modifications to the aircraft. On July 1, 1975, the first improved aircraft was successfully tested again. By January 1977, a total of 135 test sorties had been flown in 81 hours and 12 minutes.
The J-12 is the first Chinese aircraft to get rid of the Soviet MiG series aircraft pattern and develop it completely on its own. The development of this aircraft was a success. The so-called success is not only that the design indicators have been completely met and all the requirements set forth in the military's mission book have been fully met, but also that the aircraft has created a miracle in the development of supersonic fighters in the world at that time is also remarkable. To this day, the J-12 is by far the lightest supersonic fighter in the world, with the smallest geometric dimensions and maximum cross-sectional area among aircraft of its class. Its unique record of "light, short, and smart" has not been broken to this day. "Light", the normal take-off weight of the aircraft is only 4.5 tons. "Short", the take-off and landing run distance of the aircraft is within 500 meters. "Spirit", the aircraft's climbing, circling performance, maneuverability, and follow-up performance are better than similar aircraft. Its ability to take off and land in short distances on dirt roads in the countryside has not been surpassed to date.
J-12 three views
The J-12 weighs only 3.1 tons, which is about the same weight as a mid-size sedan. The normal take-off weight is 4.5 tons, the maximum take-off weight is 5.3 tons. With such a light weight, a Jiefang truck can carry it. It is not easy to use only the turbojet 6B jet engine used by a J-6 fighter to make the aircraft thrust-to-weight ratio reach 0.91. Chief engineer Lu Xiaopeng has devoted a lot of effort to reduce the weight of each gram, such as the integral fuel tank in the middle wing of the fuselage, a large area of hyperboloid metal honeycomb wall panels, carbon fiber composite wall panels, titanium alloy plates, aluminum alloy landing gear, monolithic windshields, etc., and the landing gear door can be used as a speed brake...... At that time, these new technologies were extremely innovative and accumulated rich experience for the mainland in the development of light fighter planes.
J-12 Chief Engineer Lu Xiaopeng
When the development of the J-12 has been basically completed, what the chief engineer Lu Xiaopeng and his team are waiting for is not the finalization of the product and the subsequent mass production, but the news of the "dismounting" of the J-12. In February 1978, it was decided to stop the J-12 project due to the adjustment of the equipment system. The J-12 did not go from the factory to the troops, but from the factory to the museum. This kind of ending of "dying before leaving the school, and making the hero cry" is really suffocating. Many years later, carefully combing the development process of the J-12, it is not difficult to see that there are two fundamental reasons for the occurrence of this "tragedy":
1. The guiding ideology of "air guerrilla warfare" in the "small annihilation" mission book issued by the military is incorrect
The idea of "guerrilla warfare in the air" originated in the Vietnam War, when the air-to-air missile hit rate of US fighters was low, and the MiG fighters of the Vietnamese army shot down the US F-105, F-4 and other advanced fighters many times in air battles, and in addition, the Chinese Air Force's J-5 and J-6 also had examples of shooting down advanced US fighters in territorial air defense operations.
As a result, the "small J] put forward the requirements of "high mobility and flexibility, short take-off and landing, simple maintenance, and low cost". However, in generating this idea, two of the most important objective realities were ignored. First, whether it is the Vietnamese Air Force or the Chinese Air Force, the successful cases of fighting against US aircraft are only isolated phenomena, not phenomena of high probability. The arguments drawn from this argument are both subjective and one-sided. The second is that "there are gains and losses". Blindly pursuing "lightness, shortness, and agility" in the development of fighter aircraft will inevitably come at the expense of other aspects of performance and combat capability.
2. The J-12 cannot adapt to the needs of modern warfare
Because the J-12 pursues too much "light, short, and smart", it inevitably produces the following obvious drawbacks:
1) Because the volume of the aircraft is too small, the amount of fuel carried is too small. With two 400-liter drop fuel tanks, the maximum range is 1385 km, and the combat radius is 277 km. Without a fuel tank, the aircraft can carry only 1,250 kilograms of fuel and has a maximum range of only 1,167 kilometers. The combat radius is 233 km. Such a range and combat radius are far from the requirements of modern warfare.
2) The aircraft is equipped with only one 30 mm cannon (only 80 rounds of ammunition) and one 23 mm cannon (only 120 rounds of ammunition) and two infrared-guided air-to-air missiles. This kind of firepower cannot support the intensity of modern air combat.
A 12-mm cannon mounted on the left side of the nose of the J-30
3) Because the J-12 engine is the nose air intake, it is impossible to install fire control devices and radars in the nose. This not only deprived the aircraft of its ability to fly at night, but also caused the pilot to spot enemy aircraft only by visual or ground guidance. At the end of the 70s of the 20 th century, the hit rate of missiles carried by US fighters increased significantly, and they could achieve over-the-horizon operations. Obviously, neither the J-12's defects in the ability to fly at night or the shortcomings of finding targets by visual sight alone can meet the needs of modern air combat.
The above are all incurable wounds of the J-12, and if you take this wound to fight, you can only end up in a fiasco. From this point of view, the military at that time did look away when it issued the "small annihilation" mission, but at this time, the military ordered the J-12 to "dismount".
Although the J-12 was not equipped with troops in the end, it was still a success. So far, there are many people in the industry who feel sorry for their "dismounting". After visiting the China Aviation Museum, an expert from the famous British Rolls-Royce Engine Company believes that among the aircraft developed in China, the J-12 is the best. If it can be equipped with a turbofan engine, it can not only greatly increase the thrust, but also reduce fuel consumption by nearly half, thus doubling the range. Some experts believe that the J-12 can be used as a model for attacking armed helicopters with only a few changes......
A total of 6 prototypes were produced for the J-12. One of them no longer exists due to the strength failure test. Of the remaining 5, 2 were retained at the Nanchang Aircraft Factory. The China Aviation Museum has 2 in its collection. There is also one that is now in existence at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
J-12 fighter - existing Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
*The picture is from the Internet, if there is an infringement dispute, it will be deleted