[Image: Nickatgreat1220 / X]
A new video has emerged of one of China’s new futuristic fighter jets, a three-engine, tailless flying wing aircraft that Western analysts have dubbed the J-36.
The short clip, filmed from a car, gave aviation enthusiasts and defense analysts a close look into the aircraft’s design, and has many wondering what China has been up to while the world has been preoccupied with the war in Ukraine and Trumpmania.
The jet is thought to be a sixth-generation aircraft, incorporating the latest stealth technology, avionics and powerplant and airframe engineering.
The newly circulated video captures the J-36 as it overflies the traffic on a Chinese urban highway during final approach for landing at the Chengdu Airframe Plant, located approximately 6 nautical miles to the northwest of Chengdu’s city centre.
J-36 pic.twitter.com/PJ1Thqt4tZ
— Sweet Clay (@Clay_PLAPAP) April 7, 2025
According to military aviation expert David Cenciotti, “The trijet engine arrangement, with two engine intakes under the wings and a dorsally-mounted intake behind the cockpit, is a departure from conventional twin-engine setups seen in many contemporary fighters.”
The US military’s fifth-generation jets – the twin-engine F-22 and single-engine F-35 – are generally regarded as the world’s best at the moment, but the J-36 could see China pull even with, or possibly ahead of, the United States in the race to field a sixth-generation fighter.
While China’s J-36 was dominating military aviation chatter this week, it’s not the only sixth-generation jet that Beijing seems to have in the works.
The same day that pictures emerged of the J-36 in December, photos were also posted of a new tailless, twin-engine jet, referred to by analysts as the J-XX and sometimes the J-50.
沈6低飞
出处b站最后的凝视 pic.twitter.com/bBHgS4Vv4E— Sweet Clay (@Clay_PLAPAP) April 8, 2025
The People’s Liberation Army hasn’t publicly acknowledged the existence of the jet fighters, but you can bet everyone else is also working on their own supersonic killing machines. Airspace superiority might become important in the next few years.
[Source: CNN & Aviationist]
