China unveils novel advanced military aircraft
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Pair of tailless jets seen flying over Chengdu city in southwest Sichuan province may be sixth-gen aircraft. China appears to have tested novel sixth-generation stealth military aircraft as videos of the warplanes went viral on social media. Mysterious tailless aircraft were seen flying over Chengdu city in southwest Sichuan province, though the defence ministry is yet to confirm the speculation.
Both jets are tailless, meaning they do not have vertical stabilisers to help maintain control. Such aircraft are typically kept stable by computers that interpret the pilot's control inputs and make it impossible to detect. The test flight coincided with the birth anniversary of Mao Zedong, founder of the People’s Republic of China. The aircraft designs are separate from airframers Chengdu and Shenyang and may be among the most sophisticated manned fighters in the world.
The larger of the two designs is roughly diamond-shaped, with three air intakes for its engines, two alongside the fuselage and one on top – an extremely unusual configuration. The smaller one has a more conventional layout, but no tail. Both have the lack of 90-degree angles typical of stealth shaping for reduced radar detection. “It really looks like a leaf,” Defence Times, a website based in Chengdu, wrote on Weibo.
