Strategy Page of the US has published an article entitled China Struggles to Build an F-22, in which disclosed that China announced its fourth generation aircraft will make its first flight within a year. The article analyzed that China’s quick development in the fourth generation aircraft resulted from the information and technolgoies that China has acquired in the past five years. But the article also said that “Chinese are nowhere near this capability”. The US intelligence believed that China is still having trouble in engine design and manufacturing.
The articled said that the PLA China air force has developed an F-22 type aircraft and will make its first flight within a year. China also believes that the aircraft will enter service within 10 years. The US intelligence department thought that China is struggling to acquire the technolgoy and manufacturing capability of the fourth generation aircraft. If Chinese hackers have got enough data in quantity and quality in the past 5 years, China is possible to have the technolgoy to design and product F-22 and F-35.
In the past 20 years, China has been chasing the steps of world engine manufacturing technolgoy, which is the key component for any high-performance aircraft. Since now, China can not developed a high-performance engine to match its advanced fighters. Most of the engines are imported from Russia, RD 93 and AL-31 F. China has bought more than thousand engines of these two types. The cost of each RD 93 engine is USD 2,500,000. But China do not want such reliabiliy to imported engines and have developed an engine of RD 93 type, thanks to the help of Russia.
Source: Strategy Page
http://forum.globaltimes.cn/forum/showthread.php?t=9190
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