Dillinger
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I disagree with the assumption that the F-35 is single engined only to the services requirements. The US Navy has a twin engine requirement for over water operations.. none of the other two services had this requirement or need but they still had performance on their mind. It ludicrous to think that the USAF and Marines decided to go with lesser performance out of a single engine.
The F/A-18E has two engines that produce 98 Kn.. the F-35 has one that produces 191Kn both at AB.. Yet the F-35 carrying two bombs and two AA missiles... flies farther than the F-18 and has better T/W in that configuration.
You CANNOT value performance as a measure of the number of engines a fighter has. Simply because by that logic a ten engined fighter should be able to out do anything in the air.. regardless of how much power those engines produce.
The reason why all these large 5th gen projects are going for Twin engines is simply because at this stage there is no single engine powerful enough besides the F-135 and F-136 to produce the thrust needed to get an aircraft that carries all those avionics, weapons and RAM shaping measures and so on .. aloft by itself. Hence , you develop two engines that give it enough thrust to perform those tasks.
Yes, but the F-35 ended up being downgraded from a true VLO air craft, has a very limited payload and not spectacular performance when it comes to range. While the J-31 may not end up matching the F-35 in sensor fusion with the fancy EOTS and 360 degree MAWS it would still match it in LO performance, have greater range and probably turn out to be cheaper,no?