Excerpts:
The imagery underscores just how large the J-36 is and all but confirms it features a side-by-side crew arrangement under a huge bubble canopy.
New imagery of China’s ‘J-36’ very heavy tactical 6th generation jet has just emerged out of China. The photos shows a long-awaited perspective of the aircraft - taken from the front - that confirms our analysis that the aircraft features a very large and broad bubble canopy to go atop its equally broad nose section. Under that canopy would be two crew sitting side-by-side, similar to the F-111 and Su-34’s arrangement, among others. The image also offers a view of the dorsal inlet on the three-engined aircraft, along with its diverter-less supersonic inlet (DSI) ‘hump,’ which appears very large here.
Overall, the photos serve as a reminder of just how big this aircraft is. Like many tailless designs, especially stealthy ones, they can look far smaller from the side than from the front, top or bottom. While we have become accustomed to the J-36’s modified delta platform, the head-on perspective really underlines the proportions and mass of Chengdu’s next-generation tactical jet design.
https://www.twz.com/air/chinas-j-36-very-heavy-stealth-tactical-jet-photographed-head-on-for-first-time
