At the 12th Zhuhai airshow, the stunning debut of three aircraft formation of J-20s with "new paint, new formation, and new appearance" is undoubtedly the greatest "Easter Egg" offered by the airshow.
From the one minute glimpse of its two aircraft formation at the last airshow till the blazing climax of this year's three aircraft formation, J-20 has kept the general audience full of anticipation throughout. On November 7th, PLAAF's "Golden Medal of Honor for Meritorious Pilots" winner and J-20's test pilot on its maiden flight, Li Gang, accepted an interview from Xinhua journalists and provided a detailed account of the behind the scenes stories of J-20's test flights.
The takeoff time of J-20's successful maiden flight: there are exactly eight "ones" by coincidence
January 11th, 2011, China's J-20 stealth fighter successfully flew for the first time in Chengdu. As China's first generation stealth fighter, J-20 not only initiated PLAAF's "Era of 20s", but also announced the arrival of its "Era of Stealth".
Even to this day, Li Gang has difficulties concealing his excitement when recalling that moment seven years ago. "As a test pilot," he said, "it is a tremendous fortune to test fly J-20's demonstrator on its maiden flight."
On 1:11PM, January 11th, 2011, Li Gang took off successfully.
"There are exactly eight 'ones' in the time of takeoff!" Li Gang said. He added that the takeoff time was just a coincidence. The first flight was originally scheduled for the 7th but was delayed till the 11th due to inclement weather in Chengdu.
Although Li Gang technically took off on 13:11 that day, Li Gang --- as a soldier --- prefers to interpret the time of this historic moment as 1:11 in the afternoon because there are exactly eight "ones" coincidentally. "[It makes me] feel proud." said Li Gang.
China's most surreal fighter plane: "information before your eyes, control at your finger tips"
When asked about J-20's piloting experience, Li Gang described it using a (two characters in Chinese) word that left infinite room for imagination: "Surreal!"
J-20's cockpit is not only spacious and neat but is also reasonably configured, making the piloting experience extremely comfortable. Li Gang refers to it as China's most "surreal fighter" by far.
"Everyone who has seen J-20's cockpit will exclaim: so neatly organized, so few electrical switches!" Li Gang said. He also stated that every switch in J-20's cockpit, soft or hard, feels extremely modern.
Li Gang said that one can figure out the purpose of every electrical switch in J-20's cockpit just by glancing at it; during night time flights, one can figure out the purpose of a switch just by touching it -- a very good error-proofing design. "Controlling the plane is like playing games on our phones, and the time from target detection to missile launch is very fast."
One pilot once described the experience of piloting the J-20 as "integrated LCD display and simple electrical switches truly realized the goal of 'information before your eyes, control at your finger tips'".
"Maybe many thing from science fiction are being realized through technology." Li Gang said.
Cockpit layout: a cockpit "drawn" by test pilots on the blueprints
Li Gang said that cockpit layout is very important for an aircraft. J-20's cockpit design is described by Li Gang as "[a pilot's] best office", and the key to its success is the in-depth participation of the test flight team under the leadership of Yang Wei --- J-20's chief designer and academician of the China Science Academy.
"Yang Wei sent us a lot of empty cockpit diagrams along with smaller cutouts of electrical switches. He let us to experience for ourselves by putting the pasting the corresponding switch cutout on what we think is a reasonable location." Li Gang added that if everyone pasted [the switch] on the same location, it means that the opinions agree; it not, the pilots will discuss the differences in a meeting.
There were at least five rounds of such meetings under Li Gang's impression. "In the end, every cockpit layout is a result of compromise."
From every blue prints drawn by the test flight team, to the wooden cockpit, then to the metal cockpit... The repeated collaborations between the designer and test pilots, as well as excessive attention lavished on even the most tiny of details, finally resulted in China's most scifi looking fighter jet cockpit.
Design concept: agility matching that of the J-10, first use of side-stick controller
As China's first stealth fighter, the J-20's maneuverability is inevitably compared with that of a "renowned fighter" from the previous generation, the J-10.
Li Gang said that due to the need for stealth, J-20's aerodynamic layout is far more complex than that of convention airplanes. The J-20, due to the unremitting efforts of the design team, is equipped with excellent agility and controllability virtually indistinguishable from those of the J-10.
During the flight display at Zhuhai on the 6th, a formation of three J-20s drew streaks of silvery vapors against the background of a starkly blue sky, earning both attention and tears alike from enraptured audiences; the agility displayed goes without saying.
"J-20's cockpit also employs a side control stick, a first in the history of Chinese combat aircraft." Li Gang introduced that there are three advantages to this design: superior field of view for the pilot, enhanced agility for the aircraft, and benefits for flying under high-g conditions.
Of course, as China's first stealth fighter, J-20's stealth capability is still the one capability that attracts the most external attentions. "[J-20's] stealth capability is very good." Li Gang said. He also stated stealth capability is crucial to the combat applications of a fighter aircraft.
From demonstrator to equipping the combat force: several thousand test flights
"It is very difficult for a plane to enter service since there are several thousand flights in between." Li Gang introduced that from the first flight of the J-20 demonstrator in 2011, to the prototype that first flew in 2014, and then the equipment of combat troops early this year, the J-20 underwent the entire process from maiden flight to technological verification and finally combat deployment within the span of seven years.
Ever since 2011, Li Gang has occupied the role of J-20's principal technical model owner in the Airforce Flight Testing Bureau and led the team to complete the tasks of J-20's experimentations.
"Many of J-20's new technologies are used for the first time by our country." Li Gang said. "I am extremely proud of the fact that we accomplished such a vast quantity of test flight tasks and allowed the J-20 to quickly equip the military and achieve IOC within a few short years."
