China Crosses Major Hurdle in Sixth Generation Fighter Development with Demonstration of Tailless Jet’s High Manoeuvrability
Asia-Pacific , Aircraft and Anti-Aircraft
New footage of the Chinese three-engine heavyweight sixth generation fighter aircraft in flight has for the first time demonstrated the type’s high manoeuvrability, with the aircraft seen performing a sharp turn-climb that analysts had long questioned the ability of tailless aircraft to perform. Developed by the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation, four flight prototypes of the new three engine aircraft are known to have been built, with the design on December 26, 2024, having become the first of its generation to have been unveiled in flight testing worldwide. Tailless fighters are highly challenging to make manoeuvrable because they lack the horizontal tailplanes that conventional fighters use to control pitch, provide stability, and generate rapid changes in attitude.
To compensate for the lack of horizontal tailplanes, designers must instead rely on sophisticated flight-control software and control surfaces integrated into the wing, making the aircraft inherently more challenging to control, particularly during aggressive manoeuvres. The development of a fighter with control surfaces that can provide sufficient manoeuvrability to compensate for the lack of horizontal tailplanes is outstandingly challenging, and was only confirmed to have ever been achieved with the release of the latest Chinese footage. China is thus the only country known to have flown a high manoeuvrability sixth generation fighter, and has three tailless fighter types at prototype stages, of which that developed by Chengdu is the heaviest.
The biggest issue with tailless fighters is pitch control, as while fifth generation fighters’ horizontal stabilisers generate large pitching moments, allowing the nose to be raised or lowered very quickly, and act as powerful control levers positioned a considerable distance behind the aircraft's centre of gravity, a tailless aircraft loses this mechanical advantage, leaving only elevons or other wing-mounted control surfaces to perform the same task. The absence of a tail can also reduce the aircraft's ability to generate very high instantaneous turn rates, cause significant challenges maintaining stability, and reduce control authority at low speeds and high angles of attack.
China’s defence sector has a history of developing innovative flight controls, most notably with the J-20 fifth generation fighter which uses a unique and radical delta-canard airframe design which improves stealth capabilities and flight performance particularly at supersonic speeds. The layout provides a far greater lift coefficient than its closest foreign rivals, which is particularly useful for air superiority fighters to provide better control over their angles of attack. Leading edge extensions, body lift and canards between them increase the J-20’s lift by 80 percent, which in turn allows for a reduced supersonic drag through use of a smaller wing while ensuring a high turn performance by avoiding compromises to transonic lift-to-drag characteristics.
Tailless fighter designs are considered optimal for stealth because they eliminate one of the largest sources of radar reflections on a conventional aircraft. By removing the horizontal tailplanes, designers can create a cleaner, more continuous shape that scatters radar energy away from the emitter, significantly reducing the aircraft's radar cross section. Eliminating right-angle intersections between the horizontal tail and the fuselage, improving planform alignment, and reducing the number of external surfaces are all particularly beneficial. China’s successful development of a tailless fighter with high manoeuvrability indicates that it has crossed one of the most challenging technological hurdles to develop a truly sixth generation fighter aircraft. China and the United States are the only countries expected to develop tailless fighters before the 2050s, with Chinese fighters projected to enter service in the early 2030s, followed by the U.S. F-47 in the early 2040s, and possibly the U.S. Navy F/A-XX near the end of the decade.
https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/china-major-hurdle-sixth-gen-tailless-jet