As for the side bays . . . here’s the speculation:

(Rumor is, they may even have rear-firing missiles!)

The Raptors side bays have rear firing missiles in them as well. They’re called AIM-9X.

Thanks Flanker Man. Was that forward housing the same size as the landing gear housing or was it taller? Are there any pictures in the book to show how it blended with the existing housing? Just curious on how they integrated it. It definitely makes sense for adding in the Elint equipment, though. It didn’t need the separate ‘Cheeks” like the RC-135’s.

I see what your saying KGB, about the two different fairing shapes. The one is blended nice, which is probably the one Flanker Man is referencing, but the one in your first picture looks like it is cylindrical in cross section and not as blended, besides being shorter than the blended fairing, as you can see by how they’re integrated at the door.

Dimwitted question alert:

Is it practical to fit IRST behind the front cockpit glass, or would it have too much of an adverse effect on the optics?

I don’t know that it’s a problem of optics, as you could just design the optics to integrate with the wind screen. It’s actually more a problem of packaging and field of view.

Meaning, you could probably integrate it with the windscreen if you wanted to, but you would need a longer windscreen, which might screw up optics for the pilot. 😉 What it comes down to, is it just doesn’t make sense, atm, to do that.

The primary reason for them is going to be a fairing to contain the MLG wheels, I suspect. Sofar, they’re about the only thing I don’t like about the design, it’s just sublime otherwise! While it certainly is a dead ringer for the Saturn pic, the actual proportions seem much more elegant 🙂

Actually, if you look across to the other side, you can see the Landing gear doesn’t retract inside of them, on the high res pictures. I have a feeling those are the close range missile, missile bays/housings. 😉

I never noticed the center bar on the canopy, until those high res pictures.

I’m also trying to figure out what the pods are under the LERX’s just outside the inlets. I’m thinking they’re ECM or some electronic system housings like side looking RADAR, but they appear to be metal, not dielectric covers and there aren’t any embedded antenna showing. Maybe they’re stealthy weapons pylons or where the gun(s) are located?

YES WE DID!!!!!!! YES WE DID!!!!!!!!…….YOU ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL BAAAAAAAADAAAAAAAAASSSS-MOTHAUKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

………BYE-BYE F-35…..(0.5m^2- DON’T MAKE MY SLIPPERS LAUGH!!!!!!)

I seriously doubt F-35 drivers are worried about this. That’s what the F-22s are for and, besides, it’s going to be at least a decade before anyone would have to worry about the T-50. Of course, then, I’m not sure who would worry about it. It isn’t like the U.S. and Russia are ever going to go to war and if they do, they’ll both end up losing.

But, once again, from an aesthetic stand point, the Russians win hands down. I’ll be interested to see how this bird ends up being painted. Meaning, will they go for a prototype scheme or a camo scheme for the first two?

The wing is a modified Delta planform in much the same sense that the F-22’s is, and the Typhoons, and the Rafale’s and the F-16s, etc. It make’s a very efficient wing, structurally and aerodynamically. I guess you guys forgot this pic already. The forward fuselage seems slightly different, but the rest seems accurate,

as for inlets.. please, can’t pick on anything else..

Lets see,

A-5
Mig-25
Mig-31
F-15
F14
Tornado
Su-27 family
Mig-29 family

they all share same general shape of inlets, no? Its a logical progression in design.

No, actually you’re wrong. It’s about the shock structure. It also makes sense that the Russians would use the 3D fixed shock inlet, because it’s an excellent design. In that sense, it is a logical progression, as the first inlets were pitot inlets. Then we had 2D oblique shock inlets, which first showed up on the A-5 Vigilante and became the defacto standard until as I stated above, the X-36 then the F-22.

As such, I’m not sure yet what what the F-35’s inlets would be called. I think they operate in much the same sense as a half shock cone inlet, only a very stealthy version as such. Which I forgot to list in my list up there. I don’t know if the Mirage had those first or the F-104. I think it was the Mirage.