J-6 Fighter Aircraft

	J-6III '31274' of the PLA Air Force (Source: Chinese Internet) Variants J-6 J-6A J-6B J-6II J-6III J-6IV JZ-6 Reconnaissance J-6 Ejection Seat Testbed JJ-6 trainer

Last updated: 25 April 2007

The J-6 (Jianji-6 or Jian-6, or F-6 in its export form) fighter aircraft is the Chinese copy of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 (NATO codename: Farmer), which was introduced in 1953. The first production variant J-6 entered service with the PLAAF in the early 1960s as an interceptor fighter, with other variants for training and reconnaissance roles introduced soon after. Over 3,000 examples of various variants were built before the production stopped in the early 1980s. The J-6 fighter has been completely retired from operational service, though some examples may be still flying for the training purpose. The fighter was also exported to a number of third-world countries, including Albania, Cambodia, Iran, Iraq, Burma, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

The MiG-19 is the first supersonic fighter built in the former USSR. The original design dates from the early 1950s and the prototype first flew in September 1953. The fighter served as the Soviet Union’s primary fighter during the last half of the 1950s, and has been exported to many countries including Cuba, North Korea, Iraq and most of the Warsaw Pack nations. The Soviet Union phased out the MiG-19 in the early 1960s in favour of the more advanced MiG-21, but the MiG-19 continued to be used by other countries for many more years.

The Soviet Union agreed to help China build MiG-19 locally under license in the early 1950s. Shenyang Aircraft Factory (now Shenyang Aircraft Industry Corporation, SAC) began to develop a subsonic, day-fighter model known as DongFeng-102 based on the MiG-19P and MiG-19S in 1953. The aircraft flew for the first time on 23 September 1959. The initial batch production variant of the DongFeng-102 (also known as Type 59) was rejected by the PLAAF due to serious quality flaws. As a result, Shenyang redesigned a new model based on the MiG-19S in 1961. The revised variant finally entered operational service with the PLAAF in September 1964 and was designated J-6.

J-6s: Various J-6s and JJ-6s stationed at the test facility of China Flight Test Establishment (CFTE) at Xianyang, Shaanxi (Source: Chinese Internet)

A new license agreement to build the supersonic, all-weather variant MiG-19P was signed in September 1957. The Chinese copy of the MiG-19P known as DongFeng-103 (Type 59A) first flew on 17 December 1958. Later Nanchang Aircraft Factory (now Hongdu Aircraft Industry Group) also introduced the more advanced DongFeng-105 (Type 59B) based on the MiG-19PM, which carried air-to-air missiles only with no cannon. Both variants suffered from serious quality problems with only few examples delivered before the production stopped. In the mid-1970s Guizhou reopened the MiG-19P production line to build an all-weather variant J-6A.

The batch production of the basic variant J-6 began in the early 1960s. As well as serving with the PLA Air Force (PLAAF) and PLA Naval Air Force (PLANAF), the fighter was also exported to North Vietnam, North Korea, and Pakistan. The production was carried out at three locations in Shenyang, Nanchang and Guizhou. Additional to the fighter variants, the J-6 has also developed reconnaissance variant JZ-6 and the two-seat fighter-trainer JJ-6. Nanchang (Hongdu) has also developed an attacker Q-5 based on the J-6.

The J-6 had been the most popular fighter aircraft in the PLA’s inventory for three decades. It is also the last Chinese indigenously built fighter that have taken part in real combats. On 5 June 1965, a J-6 flew by the PLANAF pilot Gao Xiang shot down a USAF F-104C Star fighter near Hainan Island. During the 1965 India-Pakistan war, the Pakistani Air Force (PAF) J-6 fighters shot down a total of 12 Indian aircraft, including one MiG-21, eight Su-7, and three British-made Hunter fighter-bombers, with only three J-6 fighters lost in the battle.

The PLA began to retire its J-6 fleet in the early 1980s. however, the lack of suitable successors and funds has delayed the modernisation of the PLA fighter fleet. As a result, many J-6s remained in active duty in the PLAAF and PLANAF until the late 1990s before they were retired and sealed in caves as reserve force. A number of J-6s and JJ-6s continued to fly for training purpose into the 21st century. As more advanced fighter are being received by the PLA, all remaining J-6s are expected to be completely phased out soon.

The aircraft's wings are mid-mounted, swept-back, and tapered with blunt tips. There are wing fences and wide wing roots. There are two turbojet engines mounted inside the body and a single, round air intake in the nose. What appears to be a single air intake is actually separated on the inside with each engine drawing air from its own intake. There are dual exhausts. The fuselage is long, tube-shaped, and tapers slightly to the blunt nose and widens to the exhausts. There is a bubble canopy well forward on the nose. The tail fin is sharply swept-back and tapered with blunt tips. Flats high-mounted on the fuselage and swept-back with blunt tips.

One to three 30mm Type 30-1 cannon with 60 rounds per gun. Basic variant has two under-wing stores stations, each carrying a 760 litres drop tank. J-6A has six under-wing store stations, carrying two PL-2 AAMs, two unguided rocket launchers, and two 500kg drop tanks. The aircraft is only equipped with basic radio communication and navigation equipment. Some variants are fitted with a primitive ranging radar in addition to optical gun-sight for night combat.

The aircraft is powered by two Liming (LM) Wopen-6 (MNPK 'Soyuz' [Tumanskii] R-9BF-811) turbojets each rated at 5,730 lb st (25.49 kN) dry and 7,165 lb st (31.87 kN) with afterburning. The aircraft has an empty weight of 5,760kg, a normal take-off weight of 7,545kg, and a maximum take-off weight of 10,000kg. The maximum level speed is 1,540km/h or mach 1.45 at 11,000m; cruising speed is 950km/h at optimum altitude. Ferry range is 2,200km with drop tanks, or 1,390km with standard fuel. The combat radius is 685km with typical weapon load and two drop tanks. Service ceiling is 17,600m with afterburning or 16,000m with afterburning and two drop tanks. The maximum climb rate is 9,150m/min at sea level, and it takes 1.5 minutes to climb from 5,000m to 10,000m without afterburning, or 3.8 minutes with afterburning. The G limit is 5~6G.

Variants