J-31 cockpit showing redundant HUD and HMD.

F-35 cockpit without HUD. Judging from the J-31 layout, it is clear that the Chinese copied the F-35 cockpit slavishly without fully understanding what they were doing.

If the Chinese copied it “slavishly” why did they put in the HUD?

Your whole premise is childishly goofy. They get the thing flying but have no understanding of what they are doing :/

Y-20

WZ-10

From CFM:

For whatever it’s worth:

The two Chinese airliner projects are forcing major investment in the engine design and production space. The two foreign engines powering the programs are :

SaFran LEAP-X for the C919
GE CF34 for ARJ-21

The CJ-1000 is public name for the eventual Chinese replacement of the LEAP-X and will include MTU (Germany) and Avio (Italy) as consultants and contractors.

The WS-118 (WS-20?) and the SF-A were mentioned in stories related to the CJ-1000 and therefore hinted as possible replacements for the LEAP-X. The WS-118 is supposed to be based on the WS-10 core while the SF-A on the WS-15’s.

There is also WS-12 project as replacement for the CF34.

It would be very interesting to see how these spillover to military side of things.

Unlike the military engines, the commercial pressure of these projects — China needs a bigger slice of its own 6000 plane airliner market in the coming decade — will force money into development. Just like commercial need had forced money into High Speed Rail and in immense amounts.

China’s investment into the military in general and the aviation engine industry in particular was always exceptionally low, especially compared to civilian projects seen as having a proper return. In the engine space, lack of investment was made worse by a plethora of projects (WS-9, WS-10, WS-13, WS-15, etc.)

AVIC pulling the engine design and production houses under one arm should further consolidate things. Chinese observers are hoping for a HSR revolution in the aerospace industry. China basically built an entire eco-system in the matter of a decade — by hook or crook. There are J-11B equivalents in the HSR industry. Foreign ancestry but produced from nuts and bolts up in China.

The WS-10H (Taihang for J-15) and WS-15 (Emei for J-20) completed testing in Tibet.

http://www.defenseworld.net/news/11141/China_Tests_Stealth_Fighter_Engine_in_Tibet#.VCZFuvu9Kc0

AVIC is setting up an engine design and production arm. The idea is to bring more focus (and resources) into a traditionally underfunded segment. This is happening mainly because of the COMAC projects (ARJ21 and C919) and the need to capture a portion of China’s projected 6000 aircraft market.

http://m.english.caixin.com/m/2014-09-26/100733724.html?m_referer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8=

China is attempting to manufacture super alloy turbine blades but continues to suffer reliability and quality problems. Tracking China’s supplies of rhenium � a rare metal that increases the temperature-resistance of turbine blades � is an indication of China’s progress in designing and producing an engine that can handle higher internal temperatures, for increased performance and durability.

However, a comprehensive analysis by experts from the China Gas Turbine Establishment, which played a major role in designing the WS-10 engine, still complains about engine reliability and other persistent problems.

The above was taken verbatim from Collins and Erickson’s 2011 article. Good piece overall but still 2011 and they had no idea of the numbers of J-11Bs that had since come out fully documented by regiments.

BTW, you should at least attribute them if you going to cut and paste.

And this is after China has dropped a ton of money on domestic engine development.

How much is a “ton” of money? Collins and Erickson noted an investment of “US$1.53 billion into jet engine research and development over the next 5 years” beginning in 2011.

That’s a pittance when the PRC’s investment in high speed rail was $90B in 2009 alone.

China rarely spends much on military items especially in comparison to commercial infrastructure. You don’t get much return on military spending ;which is why China’s nuclear arsenal is very small at less than 1000.)

What will really drive Chinese investment beyond the pittance put into engines is the possibility of saving trillions with a homegrown high bypass for passenger and freight liners that China needs in the year coming up.

With the WS-20 in testing, it seems they are well on their way.

If China is having trouble at this level of engine development how can they expect to compete with the next generation of so called �adaptive cycle� engine prototypes being developed in the west today?

There is barely a handful of nations “at this level of engine development.”

Read Collins and Erickson’s (you quoted them.) China’s main goal is to reduce dependence on foriegn engines. With mass production WS-10As going into 174 J-11Bs and counting, that’s a reasonable measure of success for a pretty practical goal.

Point taken. Is there any creditable information you can share on status of the WS-10A family of engines?

Your best bet is the answer from the author who pretty much wrote the definitive book on Chinese military aviation in our generation — not the news from the so-called intel expert who didn’t know about the 300+ WS10As currently installed on frontline units.