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Ipak ga hoce mornarica a i RV tako da ce dobiti finansiranje. Sad mozemo ocekivati nastavak projekta.
Citat:Not long after the J-31 fighter prototype from Avic’s Shenyang Aircraft Corp. appeared in 2012, analysts realized that it was not, after all, a new combat aircraft for the Chinese military. It was just a technology demonstrator from a well-resourced but frustrated state company that had lost two air force fighter competitions in a row.
Now the J-31 has indeed become a government-funded project, apparently rescued by the shortcomings of the J-15, a naval Flanker derivative also built by Shenyang Aircraft. The navy needs the J-31, and the air force wants it, too.
Citat:The J-31 is being developed for domestic military service under government contract, an official source says. The type is now intended to serve with the navy, says the source, confirming rumors and speculative news reports that have appeared over the past few years. The air force also wants to put the J-31 into service, says the source, declining to provide more information.
Shenyang Aircraft has built two J-31 prototypes, the second of which appeared in late 2016 and is larger than the first.
The navy evidently needs the J-31 as a shipboard fighter to replace the J-15, which reportedly suffers from unstable flight control—a severe problem for carrier landings. Lt. Gen. Zhang Honghe, deputy head of the air force, told Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post in July that a new fighter would replace the J-15, which is also built by Shenyang Aircraft.
The J-31, also known as the FC-31, was competing for the navy contract with the J-20 from Chengdu Aircraft, the Sina web portal reported in July. The J-20’s wing loading looks high, making the large fighter an improbable candidate for shipboard operation, which requires low stalling speeds for safe recoveries. Also, state television has shown a model of the J-31 in naval service, though that did not mean it had been selected.
The air force’s desire to use the J-31 has not been expected but can be explained by the navy’s willingness to pay for full-scale development. The air force probably rejected an offer of the J-31 from Shenyang Aircraft 8–10 years ago because the service wanted to concentrate resources on acquiring the less advanced but urgently needed J-10: Most fighter squadrons were equipped with obsolete aircraft. Reflecting that urgency, Avic officials said at the time that the group was trying to build the J-10 as fast as possible and could not consider exports.
The J-10 cannot have been a candidate as the navy’s J-15 substitute, because the Chengdu Aircraft type has only one engine, a serious safety shortcoming at sea unless extreme reliability can be expected from the powerplant.
Maximum weight for the initial J-31 design was 25 metric tons; this has risen to 28 metric tons for the design represented by the second prototype, says Sina’s news service. For naval service, weight would rise to 30 metric tons, it says, citing unnamed sources. Radius would rise to 1,500 km (930 mi.) from 1,250 km, the news service adds, but such figures are almost meaningless if the mission and stores are not specified.
http://aviationweek.com/defense/avic-s-j-31-fighter-winner-after-all
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