J-F 17 THUNDER
DETAILED SPECIFICATIONS
* JF-17 Thunder is a light weight all weather multi-role fighter aircraft jointly developed by China and Pakistan
* JF-17 Thunder is the new approved name of the Super-7 (Chao Qi) aircraft. This name depicts true character of the modern aircraft and will surely give a new color to the image it carried earlier
* Chinese have named their version of this aircraft as FC-1, which is the first fighter aircraft totally designed and developed in China
* FC-1 on entry to PLAAF might carry the J-9 designation
* The aircraft has been designed to have high performance at low cost. Surely, this feature would have world-wide attraction. Pakistan would benefit from its sale to other countries
* Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute (CADI) designed the aircraft and prototyped at Chengdu aircraft Industry Company (CAC), both based in Sichuan Province. CAC is the second-largest fighter production base of China
* The aircraft will have an edge over its contemporary aircraft particularly Indian light combat aircraft (LCA) in its cost, early availability and supportability
* The aircraft has been developed in record time when airframe development was de-linked from avionics
JF-17 Airframe Design
1. Aerodynamic Configuration
o Bifurcated side air inlet.
o New wing with ability of high angle of attack
o Leading edge maneuvering flap
o Trailing edge flap
o Tip missiles
o Twin Ventral Fin
Aerodynamic Changes in PT-4
2. New Landing Gear
o Nose gear with steering
o Main gear with paddle controlled hydraulic brakes and automatic anti-skid braking system
3. Comfortable Cockpit and Safe Escape System
o Cockpit geometry conforming to US MIL Standard, suitable for 3% to 98% pilot anthropometrics
o Single Piece stretch acrylic transparent canopy providing a good all around Field of View
o Ejection Seat
1. Martin Baker high performance ejection seat
2. Canopy severance system for additional safety
3. French oxygen regulation system
4. New Environment Control System, providing:
o Air supply to control cockpit pressure and temperature
o Air supply for cooling Avionics
o Air supply to pilot pressure suit
o Air supply for windscreen defogging
o Oxygen supply duration three hours
5. New Designed Flight Control System
o JF-17 has composite flight control system comprising conventional controls with stability augmentation in roll and yaw axis and fly by wire in pitch axis.
o Simple autopilot
o Control system of lift increasing device, leading edge slats / flap and trailing edge flaps will be an automatic control system referring to air speed and angle of attack for improving aircraft maneuvering
6. New Electrical Power Supply System
o Main power supply system will be 115V, 400Hz three phase AC and 27V DC combined system.
o Essential power will be provided by a hydraulic driven AC / DC combined generator in case of Main System Failure
o Emergency power will be provided by a set of batteries, in the event of engine flameout, for engine restarting, communication and navigation
7. Fuel System
o Total internal fuel 5130 lb
o Single point pressure refuelling system
o External Fuel
+ One center line drop tank 800 liters
+ Two under wing drop tanks 800/1100 liters
8. Strength and Fatigue Life
o JF-17 airframe is made of semi-monologue structure
o High strength steel and Titanium alloy adopted partially at some critical places.
Max speed: 1350 KPH (Mach 1.8)
o JF-17 aircraft would be designed, tested and proofed against the requirement tailored for MIL-A-8860 and Chinese National Military Specification GJB67-85
o The desired fatigue life of the JF-17 airframe is 4,000 flight hours or 25 years
o The period to first overhaul would be 1,200 flight hours
The Avionics Suite
The avionics suite will make the JF-17 as an effective weapon platform. The glass cockpit and hands on throttle and stick (HOTAS) controls will reduce pilot workload. Accurate navigation and weapon aiming information on the head up display will help the pilot achieve his mission effectively. The multifunction displays will provide information on engine, fuel, hydraulics, electrical, flight control and environmental control system on a need-to-know basis along with basic flight and tactical information. The capability would be built around highly modern state-of-the-art avionics equipment, which is as follows:
* Dual redundant two mission computers
* Dual redundant 1553 Mux bus architecture
* Multimode Pulse Doppler Radar with high power air-cooled transmitter and capable of tracking multiple targets with prioritized firing
* Ring laser gyro inertial navigation system tied with GPS
* Smart head up display with up front control panel. HUD minimum total Field of View is 25 degrees
* Color video recording camera and video recorder (for SMFCDs)
* Data Transfer Unit with digital map function
* HOTAS
* Three smart multi function color displays
* Air Data Computer
* R/Altimeter
* IFF Interrogator/Transponder
* ACMI
* Standard Armament Interface Unit
* Remote Interface Box
* BVR Datalink
* V / UHF Communication System (Qty 02)
* Comm Datalink
* All associated antennas
* Warnings Computer
* ILS
* TACAN
* RWR
* MAWS
* CFD
* Other essential equipment like
o Day/ night laser designator pod
o Self Protection Jammer
o IRST
o FLIR
o NVGs
o Helmet Mounted Sight/Display
Weapons Capability
1. The aircraft would be fitted with modern Stores Management System incorporating accurate weapons delivery modes and solutions involving minimum pilot work load
2.
The system would be based on Mil-Std-1760 architecture for all stations including the wingtip stations
3. The aircraft would be capable of carrying some of the most modern as well as conventional weapons, including:
1.
70-100 Km range beyond visual range active missiles
2.
Highly agile Imaging infra red short range missiles
3.
Air to sea missiles
4.
Anti radiation missiles
5.
Laser guided weapons
6.
Programmable delays cluster bombs
7.
Runway penetration bombs
8.
General purpose bombs
9.
Training bombs
10.
23 mm double barrel gun
