What do we know so far about China's advanced J-36 and J-50 fighter jets?
fighter jets – known as the Chengdu J-36 and the Shenyang J-50 – stunned the world when they seemingly emerged out of nowhere on December 26 last year.
Advertisement
Over the past six months,
more sightings and the resulting images and witness reports have given us an increasing amount of detail about the two advanced and yet mysterious aircraft. Here is what we know about them so far – as well as some of what we do not.
01:09
New Chinese fighter jet seen over Chengdu tacitly confirmed by military
New Chinese fighter jet seen over Chengdu tacitly confirmed by military
Chengdu J-36
Also nicknamed the 'Gingko leaf' because of its shape, the name of this aircraft, developed by the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation (CAIC), has never been officially disclosed.
It is known as
the J-36 because of the serial number '36011' that was painted on the prototype jet in the first images – similar to the initial
J-20 , which bore the number '2001'.
The J-36's distinctive diamond shape derives from its delta wing platform design, which could greatly reduce air drag when the plane is cruising at high speed. The aircraft is also distinctively tailless – essential for radar evasion.
Advertisement
Other unique aerodynamic features include trailing edge control surfaces per wing and split flaps close to the wingtips. These configurations further streamline the airframe while making up for the loss of manoeuvrability.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
34 minutes ago
- South China Morning Post
Leapmotor, Xpeng report record July sales as their cheaper EVs appeal to Chinese consumers
Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers Leapmotor and Xpeng reported record sales last month, spurred by the popularity of their inexpensive cars, as a price war faded following Beijing's intervention to cool the market. After EV builders held back on discounts and interest-free loans to comply with Beijing's call to end a brutal price war , intelligent battery-powered cars priced at around 100,000 yuan (US$13,888) became the primary choice for budget-conscious consumers. Hangzhou-based Leapmotor, backed by Fiat owner Stellantis, broke its sales record for the third consecutive month, delivering 50,129 vehicles in July, up 4.4 per cent from June. The number represented a year-on-year jump of 127 per cent. Guangzhou-based Xpeng , partly owned by Volkswagen, delivered 36,717 cars to customers in July, up 6.1 per cent from the month earlier and a 229 per cent gain year on year. The volume beat the company's previous record of 36,695 units set in December. 'The two carmakers maintained their strong momentum because their vehicles were highly competitive in terms of both pricing and technological strength,' said Tian Maowei, a sales manager at Yiyou Auto Service in Shanghai. 'Most consumers are opting for cheaper models due to worries about job prospects and wages.'
South China Morning Post
4 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Chinese scientists say they can create a ‘storm eye' for PLA forces in electronic warfare
Chinese scientists have developed an advanced electronic warfare technique that can create a zone of electromagnetic calm, similar to the eye of a storm at the heart of an intense signal jamming environment. Advertisement This groundbreaking innovation could allow Chinese military forces to disable enemy communications and navigation systems while protecting their own troops and allied networks from collateral disruption. The technology , still at an early stage with feasibility verified in computer simulations, relies on coordinated unstaffed aerial platforms that emit precisely-tuned radio frequency (RF) interference. By adjusting the waveform, amplitude, phase and relative timing of their signals, these drones can generate a targeted null at friendly positions where jamming signals are cancelled out. 'Under the simulation condition of a 20 dB interference-to-signal ratio, electromagnetic interference at the target legitimate user can be reduced to zero,' wrote the team led by Yang Jian, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, in a peer-reviewed paper published in Chinese journal Acta Electronica Sinica on July 24. Advertisement This dual capability – jamming adversaries while safeguarding allies – marks a significant evolution from traditional electronic warfare, which often relies on brute force. This usually comes in the form of omnidirectional jamming that disrupts everything within range, friend or foe, according to Yang and his collaborators from the National Key Laboratory of Wireless Communications in Chengdu, Sichuan.
South China Morning Post
7 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Meta changes course on open-source AI as China pushes ahead with advanced models
Facebook parent Meta Platforms, a major proponent of open-source artificial intelligence (AI) models with its Llama family, has indicated it would be more 'careful' going down the open-source road, a move that contrasts with China's embrace of open-source. In fact, China has probably found the path to 'surpass the US in AI' thanks to the momentum in the country's vibrant open-source AI ecosystem, according to Andrew Ng, a renowned computer scientist known for his work in AI and the field of deep learning. Wu, an adjunct professor at Stanford University's computer science department, praised China's open AI ecosystem, where companies compete against each other in a 'Darwinian life-or-death struggle' to advance foundational models. In a post published on the education platform he co-founded, Wu noted that the world's top proprietary models were still from frontier US labs, while the top open models were mostly from China. Chinese companies have been launching open-source models in quick succession in recent weeks. Alibaba Group Holding and Zhipu AI rolled out their latest reasoning and video models this past week. Alibaba claimed its Wan 2.2 video tool was the industry's 'first open-source video generation models incorporating the Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture' to help users unleash film-level creativity. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. Crowds seen in front of the Zhipu AI booth during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai. Photo: Handout Zhipu boasted its GLM-4.5 as China's 'most advanced open-source MoE model', as it secured third place globally and first place among both domestic and open-source models based on the average score across '12 representative benchmarks'.
