China tests stealth jet 'for carrier use'

01 November 2012

Photographs of a second type of Chinese stealth jet have been published just two years after the country unveiled its first stealth fighter.

The J-31, which is smaller than the J-20 jet photographed in early 2011, is expected to be operated from China's aircraft carriers.

The jet was pictured flying from a runway operated by the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC), in the northeastern Liaoning Province on 31 October.

Bai Wei, former deputy editor of Aviation World weekly, told China's Global Times that the jet, which is smaller than the J-20, was "almost certainly" designed for use from an aircraft carrier.

The J-20, which is being developed by the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, is expected to go into service by 2019.

China has denied that the country's rapid development of stealth aircraft is related to reports that Chinese agents purchased parts of an American F-117 stealth fighter shot down in Serbia in March 1999 and reverse-engineered technology from the wreckage.