For pure research without practical implications, this is expensive and not very useful. I.e. there's some overflow of data into normal jet CTOL performance, but you may as well make a simpler demonstrator just for that alone.
What are the odds, that what we're looking here is not a fan, as people are saying here, but a compressor (stator blades not depicted)?
RAAF F-35s are A models.
My point was obviously broader than just the RAAF birds -- this whole episode at least gives some credence to those earlier rumors, i.e., something must have clearly happened. But your take is valid too...
Rather than investigating potential embezzlement, shifting the blame onto China would also be a convenient option.
There is no indication of any engine related items being involved. Please do not add your own unfounded speculation here.
I see you have absolutely zero self-awareness...
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"but you can bet that a good chunk of those other components are going to be engine-related" is unfounded speculation. You can call it something else if you want but that is what it is.
I am sick of people making comments without any facts or true knowledge. Using a Twitter post as some claim of evidence is laughable at best. I challenge you to find any credible evidence to back up this BS Twitter claim. As someone in the industry and having particular interest in this area I can assure you that they are utter garbage.
Actually that only shows your bias (as proved elsewhere on the forum, but that's another issue altogether). Besides i doubt you or pretty much anyone in the west really has any idea what the chinese got (or didn't got) F-35 wise. However the near-certain work on an F-135PW-600 like engine as well as iirc some surprisingly similar engine parts, well as a ruomured F-35B equivalent in the works certainly point to to some developments we might not be privy off and likely never will. For all we know they might have smuggled piece by piece an entire F-35 or at least big chunks of it, which is a hilarious thought, but again i doubt anyone on these forums has any way of knowing either way (if ever).
Could be anything from seat covers to an engine. I'm guessing it's on the lower end. But keep the dream alive.
Well how else would they be able to build one? Gotta steal it somehow.
These are standard Chinese government-style tender notices listing the project title, location (Beijing), type (招标公告 / bidding announcement), and release date."
- "升推一体动力系统燃气发生器关键零件检测与逆向设计 (Detection/inspection and reverse design of key parts of the gas generator for the integrated lift-thrust power system). Dated 17 October 2025.
This explicitly calls for inspecting critical gas-generator components (the core that produces the hot gas stream) and performing reverse engineering/design work on them.- 升推一体动力系统核心机原理实验测试系统集成 (Integration of a principle/experimental test system for the core engine of the integrated lift-thrust power system). Dated 1 August 2025.
This covers building or integrating a test rig for fundamental experiments and validation of the core engine.- 升推一体动力系统组合压气机加工制造装配 (Processing, manufacturing, and assembly of the combined/compressor section for the integrated lift-thrust power system). Dated 19 March 2025.
This involves machining, producing, and assembling the multi-stage compressor (a key high-pressure section of the engine).
Really?
Why wouldn't they? By all accounts the lift fan is one of the parts of the F-35 that worked out of the box exactly as advertised.
No, I am responding as someone who is sick of people posting unsubstantiated comments without real evidence and trying to make out that it is real.
And yet you include a twitter post saying that "...the Chinese got their hands on a whole ass F135..." without any qualification or otherwise. Sure looks like you are trying to imply it is true.
So you are using the "no evidence = evidence" tactic? Right.
More of the same.
The clutch was apparently one of the more challenging parts to get working. IIRC it uses a mix of carbon-carbon brake tech and Top Fuel dragster clutch engagement design. Controlled slippage as RPMs come up and then finally locking up once the fan RPM has gotten up to a decent speed.
Well, nothing is flying *yet* in China.
Yep. Just noting that while the lift fan itself is pretty simple, the drive is a little more complex than people have been thinking.
I predict they'll call it the J-35B Flying Lightning.
Disagree, twin engines do not help your survivability during VTOL. I expect them to build a single-engined airframe.
That's already been said. More or less a not-an-F-35B.
Where did two engines come from in my statement?
Well if it’s a “J-35B” I think it was implied to be a modified J-35 with the B moniker to copy the F-35, retaining the twin engines.
Have you seen Chinese space launch numbering? They could do it.
They can try to be funny and produce a J-32
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Even China wouldn't go there.They can try to be funny and produce a J-32
When you said J-35, which is a twin-engine design.
I'm halfway expecting someone to add burners to the LiftFan at this point.
This is exactly the idea was proposing a few posts ago. Makes more sense than it first appears. (except its not a fan but a compressor)
