Open Source photos have finally appeared of the Chinese ski jump test facility, and it looks like they have at least one FLANKER test article. The one ground-level picture had appeared a few months back, but when I asked xinhui and others for the location, the only answer I could get was the Shenyang test facility. That was not correct. Now for the first time that I have seen, someone has gotten a hold of recent overhead imagery of the Xian-Yanliang test facility, which is where this ramp was built within the last couple years.
Building it there seems an unusual choice, given its altitude of over 1500ft above sea level. Maybe they have good weather for testing there, with frequent sustained high winds that might better simulate wind over the deck during air operations?
Here are some totally unrelated photos that were taken last week.
2 comments:
A skijump test facility that is operational can only mean one thing, they have a carrier prototype version of J-11 under testing. Probably based on T-10K prototype of SU-27 acquired from Ukraine. Would need strengthened airframe to cope with added stress of taking off and landing on carriers.
There are certainly a lot of details like that to take into consideration. That’s a great point to bring up. skydiving las vegas
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