2011 has both a high bulge on the nose (retractable IRST?) and faceted sensor underbody? Is this perhaps dual use for both a2g and a2a?

What I see is a huge burn up of raw resources that the West thought was being acquired for the consumer export market. I’d be surprised if the commodities market doesn’t surge in value. It takes a huge capital expense to build the logistical chain to deploy these new units, so it’s not sustainable without altering material supply. It also makes one guess that China has mastered at a minimum 2042 aluminum alloy production. That is not insignificant.

The J-10B is a technology peer to MiG-35 and F-16C. The J-11B, J-15, and J-10B generation is a focus on eccm and survivability on par with western designs. If missile technology keeps on pace they will be a technology peer inside of a decade and are currently approaching anything the Russians can produce. Let’s look at the big picture for a minute. India, China, and Russia are currently ramping up fighter production in line with the F-35 production. J-20 and PAK-FA are obviously a step up from there. The difference is the West is banking on one main design common to partner nations. The aforementioned three nations are using a hi-lo performance mix. Time will tell which one is more relevant.

Yes, it was Vought’s VFX mockup in the competition. My poor translation of the website it was nabbed from.

Ultimately I posted it for how I wish the Starfighter had evolved tail-wise. It still doesn’t have Convair’s knife-like canopy, but its all-moving tail was visibly prettier and in practice more functional that the T-tail of the Starfighter. In some ways the Starfighter was bleeding edge technology. For its day it had top notch braking when landing, stick shaker for stall warning, and automated fuel transfers. It had nice triple-redundancy electrically and with the hydraulics. And it had the Vulcan cannon when so many others types in its class went with heavier 30mm revolvers or reciprocals. All things considered the F-104 could have used a refresh in design in the mid- to late 60’s to take advantage of new methods. I do like F-104S Starfighter’s wings with the tip tanks, the six missile load out of Sparrows and Sidewinders, and the simplicity of its landing gear. I’m sure the F-16 design team kept all these facts in mind when preparing for the LWF competition.

The pre F-14 mockup somewhat resembles the F-104 (except for the two seater, twin engine aspect of course)
[ATTACH=CONFIG]224102[/ATTACH]

Didn’t realise the Thunderchief was so large!

I was surprised seeing it in real life and not in pictures. The A-6 is another surprisingly gigantic airplane. Both aircraft could accommodate tall pilots unlike other large aircraft like the FB-111A. Not every cockpit is designed for six foot tall pilots.

The JSF was never meant to be the supersonic fighter people seem to wish it was going to be. It will spend 99% of its time flying subsonic and its meant to do that exceedingly well. Better to fly well where you spend all your time and not chasing impossible dreams.

The catamaran rack on the F-104 is nifty. I imagine it would work with other light fighters like the F-5. The F-16 already integrated hardpoints in the same pattern. F-5 with a catamaran toting the Sniper pod and a centerline tank would be handy.

http://www.mycity-military.com/imgs2/111781_59692766_7223594bgw1e6ano56b8rj20l10rjq5q1.jpg
http://www.mycity-military.com/imgs2/164332_64967747_p.jpg
http://www.mycity-military.com/imgs2/56181_54572235_J-20%20%2B%20PL-10%20AAM%20CG.jpg