{"id":186254,"date":"2014-03-23T20:52:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-24T01:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2014\/03\/23\/i-did-not-know-this\/"},"modified":"2014-03-23T20:52:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-24T01:52:00","slug":"i-did-not-know-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2014\/03\/23\/i-did-not-know-this\/","title":{"rendered":"I Did Not Know This"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was aware that the Chinese had developed the JF-17 for Pakistan, and that it was dirt cheap, but I did no know that it is technically a MiG-21 derivative<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In 1989, the Chinese Chengdu Aerospace Corporation unveiled a major upgrade for its locally-made F-7 jet fighter, a licensed copy of the classic Soviet MiG-21. The new F-7 variant moved the engine air intake from the nose tip to the sides of the fuselage, making room in the nose for a more powerful radar.<\/span>

<\/span>Twenty-one years later, this upgrade\u2014now named JF-17 Thunder\u2014is flying combat missions with the Pakistani air force, so far its sole user. Further enhanced with a new wing, a cutting-edge intake design and a new, more powerful engine, the JF-17 is Pakistan\u2019s most important front-line fighter\u2014and a remarkable extension of a basic plane design dating back to the 1950s.<\/span>

<\/span>In essence, the JF-17 is the ultimate MiG-21. In a sector increasingly dominated by American-made stealth fighters, European \u201ccanard\u201d planes and variants of the Russian Su-27, the JF-17 is an outlier\u2014a highly evolutionary<\/i> plane that doesn\u2019t try to be revolutionary<\/i>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(emphasis original<\/i>)<\/p>\n

The report is that the agility is similar to that of early model F-16s, which is to say better than that of later, heavier, models.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure how much of the original MiG-21 remains.  The fuselage immediately behind the cockpit looks vague similar, as does the landing gear arrangement, but the wing, horizontal tail, and vertical tail are completely different.<\/p>\n

At $25 million a pop, it’s dirt cheap, and the new engine should improve range, though considering  the limited range of the MiG 21, this is not a high bar to clear.<\/p>\n

It’s a lot smaller than most of the other fighters currently in production.  It’s the size of the Gripen, and smaller than the successor Gripen E\/F, though both of those aircraft have significantly greater payload and range.<\/p>\n

If I were a budget despot, it would be on my list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was aware that the Chinese had developed the JF-17 for Pakistan, and that it was dirt cheap, but I did no know that it is technically a MiG-21 derivative: In 1989, the Chinese Chengdu Aerospace Corporation unveiled a major upgrade for its locally-made F-7 jet fighter, a licensed copy of the classic Soviet MiG-21. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1007,1008,1011,1006],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation","category-defense-procurement","category-history","category-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186254"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}