Could it have short/smaller wings in reality? what is the J-20 is a low flying stealth aircraft designed for long range low flight as a secondary or fall back option if the D-21 (?) based Anti ship ballistic missile program was to fail?

Higher wing loading would make sense for such a function.

I would love to know what manufactering facility is HAL setting up for US$ 400 million as part of Mirage 2000 upgrade deal, I hope we are getting something important/good as that is lot of money.

dont hold your breath see article in IAF thread.

Does anyone else think the nose of the J-20 and the fuselage adjacent to it is significantly rounder or that is somehow looks a bit ill fitting to the rest of it?

Theres no surprise the British have had such a large input into the likes of the F-35 (maybe more its supporters wouldn’t want to believe). There were the likes of the FOAC, Replica and various projects/images released to the public of unmanned aircraft.

If I remember correctly; one of the main/top(?) designers of the F-117 was an honest, chirpy, stuttering Hugh Grant like Englishman.

Concerning the BAE FOAC, I remember donkeys years ago of various artists impressions & articles mentioning the UK’s rather keen interest in getting one of these aircrafts up in the air in the not too distant future, how it’d perform, what its role would be etc and also mentions of it operating along side the RAF’s new future multi-role combat fighter – meaning the Typhoon…And, all went quiet then enter the Americans with “their” idea of the F-35. The rest is history, so to speak.

The UK’s involvement in stealth programmes has been at the very least, rather quiet, seldom have a mention. But scratch away at the surface & you’ll find they have one heck of a knowledge of such subjects. Much like the likes of Scramjets etc. But rather nice to know that they can do it with very little credit given.

The next thing to look forward for for the British concerning stealth aircraft, is a replacement for the Typhoon. And it’d be interesting to see what the likes of the Germans, Spanish and Italians can come up with too. I believe these four countries would be keen on collaborating together on such a programme and maybe even the likes of India & Japan could be involved too. But at the least the four Eurofighter countries will go ahead with it anyway regardless.

And also, it will be a manned aircraft too I believe. Having unmanned aircraft is fine, but you need a proper pilot in the end.

It will be good to see what the UK and Europe come up with. If it looks like that the recent economic issues are having direct effect on the leasing companies and airlines and the single isle market drops significantly then the EU will have to do something to make sure that the aerospace industry does not go through what it did back in 2000 (which was a disaster).

Boosting aerospace now by going for the next gen EU aircraft will/could act in a good way to boost R&D and manufacturing in the UK.

If the Indian MOD/IAF have it covered in the signed contract, then MIG RAC can go pestering someone else, cause thay stand no chance in hell in this twist!
If not, the Indian have once again done a ****y job on their contract negotiation, and to the best of my knowledge it has happend many times before, so no suprise if this is the case..

Very likely possibility that there are some really good deals going on but none that benifit India just individuals within purchasing. Tri-sonic wind tunnel has never made sense as an offset. I also would not be suprised if the windtunnel sent to India is refurbished or used else where before hand.

India really needs to ratchet up the private R&D funding so that it is less dependent on Public R&D and also international contracts. It happens and works in the west and would work wonders in India too…

Did they say what the acrobat will be in?

GTRE would be very stupid/arrogant if it did not take advantage and learn about how to manufacture and design jet engines from a company that has significantly more years of experience.

My comment from page 13, which I still hold to be true. it is not generic or overly simplistic, it is very factual, its in response to another post made by a poster not by GTRE so not really critical.

since you aren’t one, we can take your rhetoric lightly.

That again is your assumption…and you know what assumptions make out of people.