China’s enigmatic tailless sixth generation ‘J-36’ aircraft captures global attention.

A video and images of an enigmatic tailless Chinese stealth aircraft, dubbed the ‘J-36’, called China’s prototype for a sixth-generation aircraft – has captured the attention of aviation and military experts globally.

The images those which were taken from a small video footage (only 6 seconds long) captured from a car, as the mysterious aircraft was spotted flying over the city of Chengdu. It’s unclear when the images, which are taken from a video, were shot, but they appeared on Chinese social media sites on Monday and show the aircraft flying over a highway near the runway of Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, the factory in Sichuan province where the new jet is believed to have been made.

The much hyped jet is thought to be a sixth-generation aircraft, incorporating the latest stealth technology, avionics and powerplant and airframe engineering. Though one of its predominant traits is its tailless configuration. As per The Aviationist, the trijet engine arrangement, with two engine intakes under the wings and a dorsally-mounted intake behind the cockpit, is a departure from conventional twin-engine setups seen in many contemporary fighters. This configuration may offer advantages in terms of thrust and redundancy. The aircraft’s underbelly appears to have space between the two landing gears, potentially housing internal weapons bays for large, long-range surface strike missiles.

The J-36’s smooth design also suggests that it has a certain level of optimisation for both aerodynamic efficiency and low visibility, leading to higher speed, and thus higher kinetic energy, that can be provided to missiles when launched, and a reduction of the chances of being tracked by anti-air radars and air-to-air missiles. Manoeuverability and stability might be achieved by advanced flight control software and a new-generation of control laws algorithms.

This development claimed to have been put Beijing ahead of Washington and Moscow in the development of a sixth generation aircraft. Currently, only the US, Russia, and China have developed fifth generation aircrafts, though projects by India, Japan, Turkey, and South Korea are underway to develop their own indigenous fifth generation fighter aircraft.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump announced last month that a contract for the US Air Force’s sixth-generation fighter – dubbed the F-47 – had been awarded to Boeing. Trump said a prototype of the jet had been flying for five years. But a US Air Force announcement of the Boeing contract for the F-47 did not give a timeline for when the jets would be deployable.

Team Maverick