Why didn t China build the J 9?Why is that plane, known as the mother of duck wings , yellow?

Why didn't China build the J-9?Why is that plane, known as the "mother of duck wings", yellow?

Why didn't China build the J-9?Why is that plane, known as the "mother of duck wings", yellow?

In China's fighter family, you can easily count the J-5, J-6, J-7, J-8, J-10, and J-11, but you can't find any trace of the J-9. It's really confusing, what kind of plane is the J-9?Why didn't it appear in the ranks of fighters?Unveil this mystery today and see what kind of legend this aircraft has left in China's aviation industry although it has not been put into use.

The story takes place in the 60s of the 20th century, when China introduced a batch of MiG-21, which later became the J-7. It is a pity that the performance of the J-7 is really unsatisfactory, the radar maneuverability is poor, and the combat firepower and landing performance are not satisfactory. As a result, China urgently needs a powerful fighter jet to improve its defense capabilities.

At that time, the Shenyang 601 Research Institute proposed two schemes, one was an improved version of the J-7, and later the J-8 was achieved. The other plan is the J-9, known as the "mother of duck wings". It is a pity that the J-9 encountered numerous twists and turns in the design stage, and finally died in front of the threshold of technology.

The original intention of the J-9 was to be used as an interceptor to intercept enemy bombers, reconnaissance planes and other military aircraft in the air. The task of the interceptor is simple: it has to fly high and fast, find the target in time, and then solve the battle with the missiles on board. However, in the early stage of design, the performance indicators of the J-9 were a trick, changing this for a while, and changing that for a while. In 1969, the J-8 had successfully made its first flight, but the J-9 had not made progress. In 1970, the performance of the J-9 was changed again, and the maximum speed was increased from 2Mach 3 changed to 2Mach 6, the combat radius has been changed from 450 km to 900 km. This was a huge challenge for China's aviation industry at the time, as the critical speed of the aircraft was set at 2Mach 5, beyond this speed, the aircraft will encounter thermal barrier problems, materials and metallurgical technology can not keep up, not to mention that the thrust of domestic engines at that time was only 85 tons.

Although the J-9 never made it into service, some of the aircraft's design breakthroughs are truly remarkable. In particular, it was designed with a canard layout, which was quite novel for its time. The advantage of the canard layout is that it creates vortices above the main wings, enhancing the maneuverability of the aircraft. Moreover, it can also solve the stability problem in the supersonic process, reduce the trim drag, and when landing, the canard wing can also deflect a large negative angle, which has the effect of a speed brake. Although the J-9 did not successfully fly out of the wind tunnel, it left very valuable data in the wind tunnel tests. In September 1971, under relatively simple conditions, the first set of high-speed and low-speed wind tunnel test models with canard layout was successfully processed and produced, which became a milestone in China's aviation design.

Although the J-9 failed to achieve the expected goal, it created a precedent for the canard wing layout, leaving a wealth of data in the wind tunnel test. These data provide valuable experience and conditions for the design of new aircraft in China in the future. Although this J-9 was not put into actual combat, its existence was not in vain and contributed to China's aviation industry.

Speaking of which, you may regret why such a potential J-9 failed to take shape in the end. Some netizens commented: "Although it did not go to the battlefield, the J-9 is a successful aircraft in scientific research, creating a precedent for the layout of canard wings, and it deserves to be the 'mother of canard wings'." ”

Although the J-9 we see today only exists in **, its story is still worth remembering. Perhaps one day, there will be an aircraft in China's fighter family that has successfully inherited the spirit of the J-9 and demonstrated China's aviation strength to the world. At least, the existence of the J-9 tells us that even if it fails, it can accumulate valuable experience on the road of scientific and technological development.