Is the "Falcon Eagle" called the J-31 or the J-35? Until the official naming, it could only be called FC-31Recently, there has been more and more news about Shen Feihuying, and netizens have nicknamed him J-35, and some people say: He should be called J-31. What kind of model it is, if it is for our own use, ultimately depends on the account given by the military. So far, it's still just a "temporary residence permit" name, the FC-31. Speaking of which, we can ask a question, among the export aircraft of our country, there is an aircraft export model that is FC-20, do you know what FC-20 is?
How I determine the model of the aircraft is affected by a variety of factors. First of all, it is necessary to see who leads the project, at the first level, and at which level. Whether the military initiated the project, or the manufacturing enterprise initiated the project, but also consider what type of model it belongs to.
In other words, whether all models are ultimately used for production equipment, or as some kind of technical verification model, especially when there are multiple claims for one model, such as the J-7 and then another number. In 1996, we launched a J-7FS, which looked a little outdated, but now looks pretty good. It features a rare mandibular air intake design, which is actually a radar and air intake technology demonstrator, and it is unique and has no other analogue. This was independently developed by Cheng Fei, who had his own model, while the military had another model, and the models for self-use and export were also different.
The FC-1 Thunder that we are all familiar with is actually the product of the ultimate improvement we want to make to the J-7. At that time, there was indeed the idea of equipping it, but due to the continuous development of the country and various reasons, especially the J-10 has become a national key project, the Thunder as a technical reserve has been put aside.
Of course, that Thunder was not called a Thunder at the time, nor was it an FC-1. For a while we called it the Super-7. Subsequently, the military cooperation with Pakistan gradually increased, based on the super 7, we co-invested with Pakistan and began to further research and development, so that the old J-7 glows with new vitality, and finally gave birth to the current FC-1, that is, the Thunder Dragon.
There is also a model of their equipment on the Pakistani side, and the Thunderbolt became JF-17. Since we don't officially equip the Thunder ourselves, we don't have a corresponding equipment model either. Now it seems that the FC-31 Falcon was not originally a project of the military, but was intended for the export market. Therefore, its development model is the FC-31, which corresponds to its export model, that is, the Chinese fighter Type 31, and cannot be the J-31.
As for the future, whether our troops will be officially equipped and whether it will be J-35, it will still have to wait for the final announcement of the military.