Every Thursday here on FTD facts
We are always learning about a new plane and we've talked about the f-35 the SEP cat Jaguar and in my last episode we looked
at the Sukhoi su-27
Today, however, we look at the Chengdu j-20 aka the mighty dragon
Yeah, that's right guys. The Chinese fighter known as the mighty dragon. What a bad
Ass name for a plane, I'm sorry guys, you know, I know we loved the f-35. It's a cool fighter, but that name
F-35 lightning. It's just not as cool as the mighty dragon
You know what? I mean? How's it going everybody? My name is Dave Walpole
Welcome to our Thursday episodes here on MTV facts where I always look at new
Aircrafts from around the world and if you like that sort of stuff like the video and subscribe and of course check out our amazing
Playlists around the aircrafts. But today we are looking at the Chengdu j-20 just an amazing aircraft
So before I begin, I want to know you guys are gonna answer this in the poll up there
Which aircraft do you prefer the f-35 to Chengdu j-20 or the f-22 Raptor?
Let me know up there and yeah
If you guys have a suggestion for another plane to do leave it down here
It can be an old plane or new plane. It doesn't really matter. So the chain do j-20
It's a new fighter as a matter of fact a new fighter on the block indeed. It's a fifth-generation
Twin jet designed as a single-seat stealth fighter now the problem with this
particular video and this aircraft is we don't know a lot about it compared to what some
Military experts might think the truth be told a lot of this stuff is, you know top-secret so it's not out to the public
Let's be real. Would you want everybody to know your secrets? Probably not
this fighter obviously has been designed by the Chinese Chengdu aerospace company and it evolved out of what was known as the
Jxx program which started way back in the 1990s also being called project
718 now the first flight for this aircraft that we know of began on January 11th, 2011
And it was introduced to the Chinese Air Force on March 10
2017 and in today's world, it's classified as the third fifth-generation stealth fighter or
More specifically it's the second country to well China's the second country to have a stealth fighter
The entire world. Sorry Russia. I know you're trying but you're not there yet now
here's the thing that a lot of people believe for the Chengdu j-20 a lot of people believe that the
Technology for this aircraft was stolen from the f-22 in the f-35
Yeah this theory began back in
2009 when the f-35 s program had been compromised
After a hack on the US servers, which the hack was traced back to China on top of that
it's also widely believed that China and Russia had been working together on a stealth aspect since
F-117a nighthawk was shot down in Yugoslavia in 1999
they believe that a lot of the parts from this aircraft went to China and Russia and they began working on their own stealth and
anti stealth technologies
However, it's really hard to say because I mean Russia and China both have a lot of anti stealth stuff at least
That's what they're declaring
They have China has quantum radar which apparently can detect f-22 and f-35 and the groomin b-2 bomber
So that's a bit scary
however
moving along getting into some of the details there is about eight prototypes that we know of with about
28 fighters out in the world today
Similar to the f-22 and the f-35 the Chengdu j-20 has bay doors that open to fire out its missiles or bombs
The reason for this is they wanted to have a smooth surface
So, you know radar can bounce right off of it and similar to the f-35 now
I'm not sure about the f-22 if it's capable of doing this but for the f-35
Similar to that the Chengdu j-20 can have external hardpoints
The Chengdu j-20 is said to be able to have four
Hardpoints carrying bombs or missiles on its wings now currently the only user of this aircraft is one country and that is China
We don't know if any other countries are using it but most
You know experts are leaning towards not it's just one country
We also don't know if other countries are interested in this fire that has not come to light just yet
Like most modern fighters today
They do have a touchpad and a major upgraded heads-up display in helmet like some versions of the f-35
It's said not to also feature an autocannon as the standard and when it comes to the stealth being stolen
There's another your indicator
If you look at the Chengdu j-20 if you look at the front nose of it, it looks very very similar to an f-22
Just does on top of that some militaries like India have said they've been able to spot this aircraft on radar
keep in mind that should be taken with a grain of salt because even f-35 and
F-22s that use stealth technology and groom and bombers. They have been known to have stuff reflectors on them to make them appear on radar
You might think that's a little bit counterintuitive
But the reason for that is to prevent any air accidents with civilians and of course
You just don't want to be using stealth during peacetime. You know, you're kind of giving away your secrets now
It doesn't really matter if America is afraid of this aircraft or not because let's be perfectly honest in
2018 it was reported that America has their very own
Replica version of this now don't know if that works very similar to a real changer. J-20 that's not been said
But we do know the American military has confirmed that they use it for training purposes
now one thing we do know about this aircraft similar to an f-22 and f-35
They're not really strongest in dogfighting one of their biggest strengths is going up against Navy ships
They can slip in before they get detected fire a missile and get out before
Navy ships even know what's going on now on top of that
It's also been said that this
Particular aircraft can carry more than an f-35 in terms of fuel partially due the fact that it is a bigger aircraft
But the one thing that we don't know and this is the one that's been, you know
A lot of people have been saying this again. It's not a hundred percent is the range on this aircraft. Some people have reported
They can go six thousand kilometers. That's insane on top of that
It's said to go over Mach two and has a surface ceiling of 66 thousand feet to close it off
The final point is how much these things cost now. It's been said that the entire program cost came in at 4.4 billion dollars
I find that hard to believe
of course reverse engineering makes things a little bit cheaper, but
But however, the one thing that is really fuzzy is the actual cost of an individual fighter in 2001
It was said that it cost anywhere between 100 to 120 million u.s
dollars
But in 2006 it was said that it's gone down to 30 to 50 million USD at its flyaway cost
However, that is a bare minimum cost but to be perfectly honest
I don't think anybody at least in the Western world really has any idea how much these things actually cost
But there you go guys. That is me looking at the change of Jay 20
I know this video wasn't quite as in-depth as our other aircraft videos
But this is the information that we do know so far again, it's a new aircraft so it's gonna be top secret
But that's it. My name is Dave Walpole I hope you guys liked this video
feel free to tune in every single Thursday and learn about new planes that being said if you have a recommendation
for another plan
let me know down there and don't forget to like our playlist and like this video and before you guys get out of here if
You guys are into gaming or anything of that matter?
you like some humorous a
Podcast well tune into my personal channel called picky nerds where I do one video a week with two other guys
It's a lot of fun but on than that I'm Dave and I'll see you guys later
Alright so here is the playlist on our aircrafts feel free to check it out
And yes, I hope you guys really like this video and we'll see you in the next one. Bye
You