@gambit , good discussion on the deflection of he canards BTW.
Hopefully at some point we'll see more and better footage of the J-20's full landing sequence and much more tarmac taxiing etc.
I hope so, too. This is just one point of curiosity that any technically minded person would have, especially if you have relevant experience relating to the subject under discussion. At the very least, we did not speculate wildly but with a modicum of background info.
When I was active duty, I learned that we minimize the use of the drag chute for logistical reasons. As aircrafts gets more and more complex, support for deployments also got more and more complex. If we want to see the economics of that, look at the airliners. There were not many civil aviation aircrafts that uses the drag chute.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sud_Aviation_Caravelle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-104
If the jet
MUST use the drag chute on landing, that limits where you can fly, so now we are talking about return-on-investment (ROI) because not every airport have certified parachute riggers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parachute_rigger
The course provides training on inspecting, packing, rigging, recovering, storing, and maintaining air item equipment.
A parachute is a composite of many individual cloth 'panels'. The rigger must inspect literally every panel no matter how large is the chute. Also under mandatory inspection are the cords and panel connection points for wear and tear. Keep in mind that as the drag chute is discarded by the aircraft, it gets tossed around on the runway before it is collected for reuse.
The parachute rigger is a dedicated specialty in every airborne regiment in every army. He must be jump qualified and willing to put his life on every chute he inspected, repaired if necessary, repacked, and certified for (re)use. So for the airliners, to have a certified parachute rigger at every airport is a financial factor to be avoided.
The drag chute is ideal for slowing down a landing aircraft at less than ideal length runways, meaning the target runway is not optimal for the aircraft. This mean if the J-20 is to be used in an expeditionary manner, as any military is expected to be, the drag chute and its human component must be available at all times. The military can afford this but civil aviation cannot. Or rather --
WILL NOT. The rigger may not jump with the jet's drag chute, but there is the pilot who is staking his life on the rigger's work.
Anyway...The drag chute is an additional logistical component for the J-20 and is why I believe the jet uses the flight control surfaces in a speedbrake function. But I could be wrong...