The J-10 (Jianji-10, or Jian-10) is a single-engine, all-weather multirole fighter aircraft designed by Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute (also known as 611 Institute) and built by the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC). The J-10 programme began in the mid-1980s as an air-superiority fighter to rival the then emerging Western and Soviet third-generation fighters such as the F-16 and MiG-29. However, the end of the Cold War and the changing requirements shifted the development towards a multirole fighter with both ‘beyond-visual-range’ air-to-air combat and surface attack capabilities. This transformation was partially due to financial consideration, but more importantly it reflected the PLA’s ambition to build an air power with both defensive and offensive capabilities.
The J-10 marks the highest achievement of the Chinese aviation industry in the 1990s. The programme featured a large amount of new technologies, including composite materials, computerised flight-control (“fly-by-wire”) system, advanced radar and cockpit electronics, computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM), etc. In the J-10 programme, the PRC not only obtained a third-generation fighter aircraft, but also gained considerable knowledge and experience in modern combat aircraft technologies. The programme also benefited from foreign technologies from Israel and Russia. Israel provided some technologies of its cancelled Lavi fighter programme including the software of the aircraft’s “fly-by-wire” (FBW) system in the late 1980s, while Russia supplied its AL-31F turbofan engine and possibly radar technologies too.
J-10 fighters of the PLAAF 44th Air Division (Chinese Internet)
The J-10 made its first successful flight on 22 March 1998. After five years of flight test at China Flight Test Establishment (CFTE), the aircraft entered the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) service on 10 March 2003, with six pre-production variant single-seat J-10 fighters handed over to the PLAAF Flight Test & Training Base at Cangzhou Airbase, Hebei Province. Further test and evaluation of the aircraft was carried out by the PLAAF until early 2004, when the aircraft was officially certified for design finalisation. The first operational J-10 fighter regiment was activated in the PLAAF 44th Air Division based at Luliang Airbase in the southwest Yunnan Province on 13 July 2004.
The initial batch of 80~100 examples were delivered to the PLAAF between 2004 and 2006, while it was estimated that a total of 300 aircraft may be required by the PLAAF and PLA Navy. A number of countries including Pakistan, Iran, and Thailand have also shown strong interest in the aircraft. Some reports suggested that Pakistan will receive the first export version of the J-10, up to 36 aircraft, by around 2010.
The J-10 programme was kept under tight security and high secrecy. The Chinese state media only announced the J-10 in November 2006, nearly two years after it entered service. Despite the huge publicity the J-10 has enjoyed on the Chinese media, no official data has been provided regarding the actual capabilities and performance of the aircraft. Without basic data such as the aircraft’s dimension and weight, one can only make estimates based on information available from open sources. The real performance of the aircraft, however, remains a state secret.
Design
As well as adopting advanced aerospace technologies, the J-10 also uses proven reliable designs to lower the technical difficult and costs. For example, the “tailless delta-canard” configuration was developed from the knowledge of the cancelled Chengdu J-9 fighter, while the computerised flight control was derived from software originally developed for the Israeli Lavi fighter. The AL-31F engine has been used by some of the most successful Russian fighters such as the Su-27, Su-30 and Su-33.
611 institute (Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute) initiated studied on the “tailless delta-canard” wing planform as early as the late 1960s. The short take-off and fast climbing capabilities of the fighters with such a wing planform was viewed as a major advantage by the PLAAF facing the threats of the predominant Soviet air power. In contrast to the classical tail-mounted elevators, the “tailless delta-canard” configuration has the horizontal control surfaces moved forward to become a canard in front of the wing. When the aircraft pitches up, instead of forcing the tail down decreasing overall lift, the canard lifts the nose, increasing the overall lift. Because the canard is picking up the fresh air stream instead of the wake behind the main wing, the aircraft can achieve better control authority with a smaller-size control surface, thus resulting in less drag and less weight.
The tailless delta-canard configuration (Chinese Internet)
The J-10 adopts an adjustable, chin-mounted air intake that supplies air to the single Lyulka-Saturn AL-31FN afterburning turbofan jet engine. The upper portion of the air intake is incorporated with an intake ramp designed to generate a rearward leaning oblique shock wave to aid the inlet compression process. The ramp sits at an acute angle to deflect the intake airstream from the longitudinal direction. This design created a gap between the air intake and the forward fuselage, and requires six small beams to enhance the structure for high-speed flight.
The tailless delta-canard configuration is inherently aerodynamically unstable, which provides a high level of agility, particularly at supersonic speeds. However, this requires a sophisticated computerised control system, or “fly-by-wire” (FBW), to provide artificial stabilisation and gust elevation to give good control characteristics throughout the flight envelope. The J-10 uses a digital quadruplex (four-channel FBW system developed by the 611 Institute. The software for the FBW system was developed by the 611 Institute using ADA language, based on the software originally developed for the cancelled Israeli Lavi fighter. The system was tested on the J-8IIACT technology demonstration aircraft.
The pilot sits in the cockpit located above the air intake and in front of the canard. The two-piece bubble canopy gives the pilot great vision at all directions, a vital feature during air-to-air combat. The onboard digital flight control computer ‘flies’ the aircraft for the pilot, providing automatic flight coordination and keeping the aircraft from entering potentially dangerous situations such as unintentional slops or skids. This therefore frees the pilot to concentrate on his intended tasks during the combat.
The J-10 is powered by a 122.5kN (12,500kg or 27,557 lb) thrust Salyut AL-31FN turbofan engine, with 4,500kg internal fuel. The aircraft also features a digital fuel management system to help improve fuel assumption efficiency. The combat radius of the aircraft was estimated to be 550~600km, but it could be extended to over 1,000km once the aircraft is added with the aerial refuelling capability. The aircraft can be fitted with a fixed aerial refuelling probe on the starboard side of the cockpit.
Video clips of the J-10 fighter released by the Chinese state media (Source: CCTV)
J-10S
The two-seater J-10S fighter-trainer (Chinese Internet)
The two-seater J-10S fighter-trainer is identical to the single-seater variant in performance and avionic configuration, but has its forward fuselage stretched to accommodate a second pilot seat. Two pilots sit in tandem in the two-seat cockpit with one single large bubble canopy. An enlarged dorsal spine accommodates additional avionic for the second pilot. The aircraft can be used for pilot training or as a standard fighter. A Chinese report suggested that the aircraft could also be modified for the airborne command & control aircraft role, with the rear-seat pilot being the commander of a small four-plane formation.
