Key Points: China’s new sixth-generation J-50 (J-XDS) stealth fighter, seen recently flying near Shenyang, features a cutting-edge tailless, lambda-shaped wing design and movable wingtips, prioritizing stealth over maneuverability.
-Its unstable design mandates advanced flight control systems like those in America’s B-2 and B-21 bombers.
-Likely designed for long-range attack and interception, the J-50 may not excel in traditional dogfights.
-Images indicate internal weapons bays, essential for stealth. Interestingly, recent photos show no pitot tube, suggesting multiple prototypes are testing separate capabilities.
-China’s openness in displaying these new aircraft aligns with an increasingly aggressive geopolitical stance, showcasing its ambition to challenge Western air dominance.
The fighter has one clear mission: to keep pace with F-22, F-35, and new F-47 fighter planes.
Meet the J-50 Fighter
What is becoming known as the J-50 or J-XDS, the Shenyang Aerospace Corporation’s 6th-generation fighter aircraft, was seen flying again on April 16. This time, the aircraft flew near the Shenyang Airfield North and Airframe Plant 112, which are co-located with the Shenyang Design Bureau facility.
The aircraft has already become known for its signature tailless configuration, lambda-shaped wing, and moveable wingtips. These are the classic design techniques that would be employed in the design of a new-generation stealth aircraft.
As mentioned in previous reporting, a design with no vertical control surfaces would require an extremely sophisticated flight control system (FCS) that relies on what is referred to as “constant adaptive control.” That type of control authority has the horizontal control surfaces maintaining the aircraft in a stable flight envelope when the aircraft’s design is inherently unstable.
That part of the aircraft’s development is critical because this type of aircraft planform is not just aerodynamically unstable but is uncontrollable in all three aircraft principal axes without constant flight corrections from the fly-by-wire (FBW) FCS to maintain controlled flight.
(Coincidentally, the flight control computer used for the F-117A was adapted from the F-16’s FCS, an unstable aircraft in subsonic flight. Its unstable flight characteristics were not to the level of the F-117A. Still, the US industry was well versed in this kind of flight control system technology even in the 1970s, which made the later stealthy designs possible.)
This FCS for a tailless aircraft is thus correcting the aircraft’s flight in a manner very similar to the technology and flight control algorithms used by Northrop with both the 1980s B-2 bomber and today’s smaller B-21.
Why Does This Fighter Exist?
The overall takeaway is that by the Chinese using these tailless design configurations with both the J-50 and the J-36 they are telegraphing that stealth is being prioritized over aerodynamic performance in their aircraft programs.
Back in the day, the US had its own F-117A program dedicated to having a low-observable platform but did not possess a wide-ranging flight envelope either. It was not designed to be an aircraft to take on an adversary air-to-air but was more of an attack aircraft.
The Chinese seem to have taken a page from this with the J-50 and J-36. In theory, the J-50 would be an aircraft optimized for a long-range attack or an intercept mission. But it would not be capable of the close, agile maneuvering dogfighting that the F-16 or F-15EX are both famous for.
Part and parcel of these kinds of stealthy designs is that the aircraft has no internal weapons bay. This is a standard requirement for any stealth fighter because weapons being carried externally on an aircraft would cause a dramatic increase in the radar cross section (RCS).
The photos seen thus far do not completely confirm that part of the J-50 design, but given the appearance of the aircraft and the other characteristics of its design, the internal weapons bay is a logical conclusion.
Strange Details on J-50
The most interesting characteristic seen in the most recent photos of the J-50 is that the last images show that the aircraft appears to lack a pitot tube on the nose of the fighter. The pitot tube is a critical data sensor used to measure the aircraft’s airspeed.
That is such an important design feature to be missing from the aircraft because, without that airspeed data from the pitot tube, the aircraft might not be capable of many specific flight routines. The airspeed information would be critical to providing the inputs needed for the FBW system to auto-correct the movements of the aircraft’s control surfaces.
This development has caused some specialists to ask whether there is more than one aircraft prototype. Having multiple prototypes capable of testing and validating different aspects of the aircraft’s design (i.e., one aircraft to test RCS, one to test flight controls, and one to test the propulsion thrust vectoring) would be consistent with Chinese practice.
The other “what is missing” question is why the PRC is being so brazen and aggressive in showing these new fighter aircraft and allowing their images and videos to be posted on the internet instead of arresting those posting them on social media for breaking Chinese secrecy laws.
One answer might be that the PRC is being aggressive on all fronts. PLAN vessels are constantly engaging and even ramming Philippine naval and coast guard ships. PLAAF aircraft and PLAN ships surround the island of Taiwan on an almost daily basis.
Beijing Has Something to Prove in the Sky
Continuing to show these two new fighters, said a former senior US military intelligence officer, is “just another way of Beijing showing that they are at the forefront of the democratic West v. the world’s dictatorships conflict and that they are not backing down.”
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson is a survivor of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and is an Expert on Foreign Military Affairs with the Fundacja im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego in Warsaw. He has been a consultant to the Pentagon, several NATO governments and the Australian government in the fields of defense technology and weapon systems design. Over the past 30 years he has resided in and reported from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China and Australia.
Arash
April 19, 2025 at 6:33 pm
Keep the pace with F-35…
Lol nice cope. Anyone can tell that this Chinese planes is clearly superior to all American planes in service or under development.
Anthony
April 23, 2025 at 9:44 am
No discussion on the all-moving wing tips and 2D thrust vectoring nozzles? You can’t make an assessment on the maneuverability without taking these factors into account.
Nothing egregiously wrong with the facts presented in this article otherwise, although it is pure cope to suggest that this is “keeping pace” with the F-22 and F-35 at this point when the A2A weaponry, avionics, and stealth profile of the J-XDS will highly likely outstrip both.