Air Platforms
China's second FC-31 fighter prototype makes maiden flight
Richard D Fisher Jr, Washington DC and Gabriel Dominguez, London - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly
28 December 2016
Images posted on Chinese online forums show what appears to be the second prototype of China's FC-31 fighter making its maiden flight.
Images posted on Chinese online forums show what appears to be the second prototype of the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC) FC-31 'Gyrfalcon' twin-engine, 'fifth-generation' fighter making its maiden flight.
The publication of the images was followed by a China Daily newspaper report quoting an unnamed source as saying that the test flight took place on 23 December - some four years after the first prototype took to the skies - at an airfield in Shenyang belonging to SAC, which is part of Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC).
Billed by AVIC as an export fighter, the first indication that the FC-31 was in advanced construction was its brief appearance in an AVIC video shown at Airshow China 2016, which was held in Zhuhai from 1 to 6 November.
Derived from the J-31 fighter prototype, the second version of the multirole fighter had been shown in model form at the 2014 and 2016 Zhuhai shows.
"The new FC-31 seems to have better stealth capabilities, improved electronic equipment, and a larger payload capacity," Wu Peixin, an aviation industry observer in Beijing, told China Daily .
This image shows some of the differences in design between the latest FC-31 prototype and the J-31 prototype.
"Compared with the first FC-31, there are a lot of improvements on the second prototype. Changes were made to the airframe, wings, and vertical tails, which make it leaner, lighter, and more manoeuvrable," he said.
The aircraft features a much-modified fuselage with an electro-optical targeting system (EOTS) and swept-back vertical stabilisers similar to those used by the Lockheed-Martin F-35 Lightning II.
AVIC recently provided new FC-31 specifications at Zhuhai, updating figures leaked at around the time of the September 2015 Beijing Airshow.
According to the new specifications, the FC-31's length has increased to 17.3 m from 16.8 m, while its maximum take-off weight has increased to 28 tonnes from 25 tonnes. The FC-31 also has an advertised combat radius of 1,250 km and can reportedly reach a maximum speed of Mach 1.8 and an altitude of 16 km (52,500 ft).
