Last December, images circulated online of China’s “sixth-generation” stealth fighter, reportedly making its maiden flight on December 26 to commemorate the birthday of Mao Zedong, founder of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). 

Though an official designation hasn’t been made public, military analysts quickly dubbed the aircraft the J-36. Few details have also emerged about the plane since then, but it made at least its second flight this month.

“Chengdu’s next-generation fighter prototype (tentatively named J-36) has been spotted conducting test flights again. Unlike the first flight, this was a single-aircraft test flight,” a Japanese military blogger posted on X.

While the aircraft was spotted near the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation’s (CAC’s) headquarters in Chengdu, Sichuan province, during its maiden flight in December, it is unclear where this recent flight occurred. Still, it was likely in the same region. 

What We Know About the Supposed Sixth-Gen Fighter

Aviation analyst Rupprecht Deino also posted three images of the J-36. The photos, which were taken from Chinese social media, offered a few more details about the airframe, including the placement of its three engine nozzles.

Previous images of the J-36 appeared to show the airframe outfitted with flat nozzles. However, the more recent photos suggest a more rounded outlet, which has led to speculation on what this means for the aircraft’s capabilities.

“Possibly, this could be because of the powerful exhausts spreading outside either the flat nozzles or variable geometry nozzles,” The Aviationist reported, adding, “The J-36 has two engine intakes under the wings, on the sides of the fuselage, and one dorsally-mounted intake behind the cockpit. The aircraft has a tailless, flying-wing configuration, twin-wheel nose landing gear, and tandem-wheeled main landing gears, like the Su-34 Fullback fighter-bomber.”

Aviation experts have also suggested that the delta-wing aircraft may have a wingspan of around twenty meters long and a total wing area of 190 square meters. Its powerplant isn’t known, but there is speculation it could be a modified Shenyang WS-10 or Shenyang WS-15.

The PRC has struggled with engine technology for its advanced domestically built aircraft, but its engineers may have overcome the issues.

The Great Leap Forward to Sixth-Gen

The aircraft’s sudden appearance in December served as a warning that China may have not only made a great leap forward with its military aviation program but, more ominously, leapfrogged the United States.

Though both the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy have their respective sixth-generation fighter programs, the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) and F/A-XX programs, it may be up to President Donald Trump who has the final say on what could be approved in the Pentagon’s budget. 

Tech entrepreneur and close ally to the President, Elon Musk, has been openly critical of the Lockheed Martin F-35 program.

The U.S. Air Force has also acknowledged conducting test flights of its NGAD manned fighter, one component of the sixth-generation system of systems that could also include unmanned drones that serve as loyal wingmen. 

Though that program was paused last year due to costs and concerns over the technology, which some officials have warned could be quickly outdated, it has been seen as needed for any future conflict in the Indo-Pacific. 

At least three other six-gen programs are in the works, including the Global Air Combat Programme (GACP), a joint partnership between the UK, Italy, and Japan, and the Franco-German-Spanish Future Combat Air System (FCAS). 

Both are reportedly advancing, with each goal of fielding an aircraft by the middle of the 2030s.

However, the state of Russia’s PAK DP, which has been described as the MiG-41, remains stalled. 

As Stavros Atlamazoglou reported for The National Interest, “skepticism surrounds the project due to past failures like the Su-57 Felon and T-14 Armata tank, both plagued by production and operational issues.” 

While previous arms races had seen Moscow as a viable contender, Beijing is the current frontrunner for a sixth-gen fighter.

About the Author: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites, with over 3,200 published pieces and over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author at Editor@nationalinterest.org.

Image: Shutterstock/ Mikhail Syritsa.

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