China tests a second Chengdu J-36 stealth fighter prototype with major design changes
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New pictures show the second prototype of China’s J-36 stealth trijet fighter conducting flight tests, featuring new thrust-vectoring exhaust nozzles, modified diverterless inlets, and a redesigned landing gear system, indicating active refinement of its aerodynamic and structural configuration.
On October 28, 2025, Rupprecht Deino shared new pictures confirming the flight testing of the second J-36 prototype at Chengdu Aircraft Corporation’s test area. The sixth-generation fighter retains its tailless, three-engine diamond-double-delta configuration but incorporates significant changes to its nozzles, inlets, and undercarriage. These revisions suggest an ongoing transition from conceptual testing to detailed aerodynamic and systems evaluation within the program’s development cycle.Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
The first J-36 prototype exhibited trough-like recessed exhausts that favoured reduced rear aspect radar and infrared signatures, while the second prototype clearly shows angular, F-22 style nozzles on all three engines that appear to support two-dimensional thrust vectoring. (Picture source: X/@RupprechtDeino)
The second prototype of China’s J-36 sixth-generation fighter jet retains its distinctive three-engine, tailless diamond-double-delta configuration but introduces clear structural modifications compared to the first prototype spotted in December 2024. The most visible changes concern its two-dimensional thrust-vectoring exhaust nozzles, revised diverterless supersonic inlets, and a new side-by-side main landing gear layout. These adjustments indicate that Chengdu’s engineers are refining the aircraft’s aerodynamics, internal volume, and control authority as part of an ongoing iterative development process. The J-36 program now appears to be transitioning from early demonstrator stages toward more mature design validation, reflecting China’s continued push to develop a long-range, stealth-oriented multi-role aircraft.
Adopting thrust vector control (or TVC) helps for stability and agility at high angles of attack by allowing a jet engine’s exhaust to be deflected to aid pitch, yaw, and roll control, but this system also increases aft complexity, mass, and thermal signature. The nozzle and upper fuselage geometry visible in later images indicates the rear fuselage was reshaped to accommodate vectoring mechanics and nozzle articulation. That reshaping likely reduces some rear low observability relative to the earlier trough concept but provides measurable flight control benefits. The available imagery does not confirm whether the TVC is full two-axis for every engine or a reduced flap style, so the degree of signature penalty versus control gain remains partly uncertain. Overall, the nozzle change signals a trade-off by designers in favour of controllability and an expanded flight envelope for a heavy tailless jet.
Concerning intakes and airflow management, the new pictures show caret-shaped lower inlets on prototype one replaced by diverterless supersonic inlets (DSI) with forward swept lips on prototype two, while the prominent dorsal DSI hump feeding the middle engine remains evident. A diverterless supersonic inlet, or DSI, is an air intake design that removes boundary-layer diverters to simplify the airframe structure, reduce radar reflections, and lower maintenance needs compared with multi-element caret inlets, while a forward-swept lower lip improves pressure recovery at transonic and supersonic speeds. For a three-engine layout, efficient and predictable engine breathing across the flight envelope is essential because mismatched inlet performance to each engine can affect handling and available thrust in critical regimes. The move to DSIs, therefore, points to an aerodynamic baseline prioritising sustained high-speed cruise and consistent engine performance over exotic, delicate inlet shapes that require more maintenance or are more easily degraded. The retention of a dorsal DSI also supports the three-engine feeding arrangement and keeps frontal and dorsal observability management within the designers’ control.
Early images showed a tandem main landing gear similar to the Russian Su-34 strike fighter, indicating very deep retraction bays and a design optimized for structural depth and heavy gross weight. Later imagery shows a twin side-by-side main wheel truck configuration, with a twin-wheeled nose gear also visible, which shortens bay length and can free longitudinal internal volume. That freed volume appears to have been reallocated to deeper central weapons bay geometry and potentially to increased fuel tanks, because underside photographs show one large central ventral bay flanked by two smaller side bays. The gear redesign, therefore, reflects a trade between structural layout and payload accommodation, allowing more compact gear doors and the internal carriage of both large standoff weapons and auxiliary air-to-air stores. Ground handling stability is also improved by a conventional truck stance for a heavy airframe, which aids taxiing and field operations from established bases.
About the cockpit, sensors, and internal bays, many things, if not any, remain subject to hypothesis. Some Chinese analysts speak about a broad canopy with side-by-side seating and two wide field heads-up displays (HUDs), supporting a two-crew concept for division of tasks such as flight control, sensor fusion, and weapons management. Large electro-optical blisters and apparent side RF apertures on the nose could point to the use of multispectral sensor suites that would support reconnaissance, targeting, and possible side-looking arrays. The photographed arrangement of a main central bay with two auxiliary side bays suggests a doctrinal loadout profiling where the main bay carries larger standoff weapons while the side bays house medium-sized air-to-air missiles or precision-guided munitions. Taken together, these features could indicate a sensor-rich, multi-role concept in which the J-36 functions as a long-range sensor shooter and an airborne node able to coordinate attritable or manned wingmen, rather than a pure short-range dogfighter.
Public imagery does not identify the installed engines on the J-36, but the airframe is sized to accept high-thrust Chinese turbofan engines such as the WS-10 or the WS-15, and the three-engine layout increases thrust margin and gross weight capability relative to conventional twin-engine fighters. Based on available scale references, the airframe length is plausibly in the upper twenties to around 30 metres and the wingspan in the high teens to low twenties metres, implying a gross takeoff weight that could reasonably sit in a broad 50 to 70 tonne range depending on fuel and stores. Internal fuel fraction appears large, supporting long on-station times and sustained high altitude cruise, and the triple engine arrangement would provide sustained dash capability without continuous aerial refuelling for many regional mission profiles. These numerical estimates are hypothetical and framed by visible volume and comparisons to known platforms, but they are consistent with a very heavy tactical jet intended for long endurance, internal payload carriage, and extended reach.
A tailless, diamond-double-delta winged design, such as the one chosen for the Chengdu J-36, reduces the radar cross section from multiple aspects and lowers parasite drag for sustained cruise, while a broad blended fuselage yields large internal volume for fuel and stores that support internal carriage of weapons and sensors. The trijet layout increases available thrust and provides redundancy and higher gross weight capacity, enabling sustained operations at altitude with significant internal loads. However, three engines and the adoption of non-recessed, vectoring nozzles raise thermal and rear aspect signatures and complicate maintenance and logistics. The tailless design also increases inherent static instability, requiring advanced flight controls and potentially TVC to manage handling, so these design choices together represent an integrated set of trade-offs prioritising range, payload capacity, and on-station persistence while accepting higher signature management demands and maintenance complexity.
Written by Jérôme Brahy
Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.
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New pictures show the second prototype of China’s J-36 stealth trijet fighter conducting flight tests, featuring new thrust-vectoring exhaust nozzles, modified diverterless inlets, and a redesigned landing gear system, indicating active refinement of its aerodynamic and structural configuration.
On October 28, 2025, Rupprecht Deino shared new pictures confirming the flight testing of the second J-36 prototype at Chengdu Aircraft Corporation’s test area. The sixth-generation fighter retains its tailless, three-engine diamond-double-delta configuration but incorporates significant changes to its nozzles, inlets, and undercarriage. These revisions suggest an ongoing transition from conceptual testing to detailed aerodynamic and systems evaluation within the program’s development cycle.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
The first J-36 prototype exhibited trough-like recessed exhausts that favoured reduced rear aspect radar and infrared signatures, while the second prototype clearly shows angular, F-22 style nozzles on all three engines that appear to support two-dimensional thrust vectoring. (Picture source: X/@RupprechtDeino)
The second prototype of China’s J-36 sixth-generation fighter jet retains its distinctive three-engine, tailless diamond-double-delta configuration but introduces clear structural modifications compared to the first prototype spotted in December 2024. The most visible changes concern its two-dimensional thrust-vectoring exhaust nozzles, revised diverterless supersonic inlets, and a new side-by-side main landing gear layout. These adjustments indicate that Chengdu’s engineers are refining the aircraft’s aerodynamics, internal volume, and control authority as part of an ongoing iterative development process. The J-36 program now appears to be transitioning from early demonstrator stages toward more mature design validation, reflecting China’s continued push to develop a long-range, stealth-oriented multi-role aircraft.
Adopting thrust vector control (or TVC) helps for stability and agility at high angles of attack by allowing a jet engine’s exhaust to be deflected to aid pitch, yaw, and roll control, but this system also increases aft complexity, mass, and thermal signature. The nozzle and upper fuselage geometry visible in later images indicates the rear fuselage was reshaped to accommodate vectoring mechanics and nozzle articulation. That reshaping likely reduces some rear low observability relative to the earlier trough concept but provides measurable flight control benefits. The available imagery does not confirm whether the TVC is full two-axis for every engine or a reduced flap style, so the degree of signature penalty versus control gain remains partly uncertain. Overall, the nozzle change signals a trade-off by designers in favour of controllability and an expanded flight envelope for a heavy tailless jet.
Concerning intakes and airflow management, the new pictures show caret-shaped lower inlets on prototype one replaced by diverterless supersonic inlets (DSI) with forward swept lips on prototype two, while the prominent dorsal DSI hump feeding the middle engine remains evident. A diverterless supersonic inlet, or DSI, is an air intake design that removes boundary-layer diverters to simplify the airframe structure, reduce radar reflections, and lower maintenance needs compared with multi-element caret inlets, while a forward-swept lower lip improves pressure recovery at transonic and supersonic speeds. For a three-engine layout, efficient and predictable engine breathing across the flight envelope is essential because mismatched inlet performance to each engine can affect handling and available thrust in critical regimes. The move to DSIs, therefore, points to an aerodynamic baseline prioritising sustained high-speed cruise and consistent engine performance over exotic, delicate inlet shapes that require more maintenance or are more easily degraded. The retention of a dorsal DSI also supports the three-engine feeding arrangement and keeps frontal and dorsal observability management within the designers’ control.
Early images showed a tandem main landing gear similar to the Russian Su-34 strike fighter, indicating very deep retraction bays and a design optimized for structural depth and heavy gross weight. Later imagery shows a twin side-by-side main wheel truck configuration, with a twin-wheeled nose gear also visible, which shortens bay length and can free longitudinal internal volume. That freed volume appears to have been reallocated to deeper central weapons bay geometry and potentially to increased fuel tanks, because underside photographs show one large central ventral bay flanked by two smaller side bays. The gear redesign, therefore, reflects a trade between structural layout and payload accommodation, allowing more compact gear doors and the internal carriage of both large standoff weapons and auxiliary air-to-air stores. Ground handling stability is also improved by a conventional truck stance for a heavy airframe, which aids taxiing and field operations from established bases.
About the cockpit, sensors, and internal bays, many things, if not any, remain subject to hypothesis. Some Chinese analysts speak about a broad canopy with side-by-side seating and two wide field heads-up displays (HUDs), supporting a two-crew concept for division of tasks such as flight control, sensor fusion, and weapons management. Large electro-optical blisters and apparent side RF apertures on the nose could point to the use of multispectral sensor suites that would support reconnaissance, targeting, and possible side-looking arrays. The photographed arrangement of a main central bay with two auxiliary side bays suggests a doctrinal loadout profiling where the main bay carries larger standoff weapons while the side bays house medium-sized air-to-air missiles or precision-guided munitions. Taken together, these features could indicate a sensor-rich, multi-role concept in which the J-36 functions as a long-range sensor shooter and an airborne node able to coordinate attritable or manned wingmen, rather than a pure short-range dogfighter.
Public imagery does not identify the installed engines on the J-36, but the airframe is sized to accept high-thrust Chinese turbofan engines such as the WS-10 or the WS-15, and the three-engine layout increases thrust margin and gross weight capability relative to conventional twin-engine fighters. Based on available scale references, the airframe length is plausibly in the upper twenties to around 30 metres and the wingspan in the high teens to low twenties metres, implying a gross takeoff weight that could reasonably sit in a broad 50 to 70 tonne range depending on fuel and stores. Internal fuel fraction appears large, supporting long on-station times and sustained high altitude cruise, and the triple engine arrangement would provide sustained dash capability without continuous aerial refuelling for many regional mission profiles. These numerical estimates are hypothetical and framed by visible volume and comparisons to known platforms, but they are consistent with a very heavy tactical jet intended for long endurance, internal payload carriage, and extended reach.
A tailless, diamond-double-delta winged design, such as the one chosen for the Chengdu J-36, reduces the radar cross section from multiple aspects and lowers parasite drag for sustained cruise, while a broad blended fuselage yields large internal volume for fuel and stores that support internal carriage of weapons and sensors. The trijet layout increases available thrust and provides redundancy and higher gross weight capacity, enabling sustained operations at altitude with significant internal loads. However, three engines and the adoption of non-recessed, vectoring nozzles raise thermal and rear aspect signatures and complicate maintenance and logistics. The tailless design also increases inherent static instability, requiring advanced flight controls and potentially TVC to manage handling, so these design choices together represent an integrated set of trade-offs prioritising range, payload capacity, and on-station persistence while accepting higher signature management demands and maintenance complexity.
Written by Jérôme Brahy
Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.
