Commentary
The Chinese military’s ambition to acquire and build vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) combat aircraft dates back to the early 1970s. After 40 years of espionage and indigenous development, China’s Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) may have a fighter program to fulfill that ambition.
In the 1970s, Britain carried out a lengthy public policy debate over whether to sell China its Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.1/3, then operated by Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF), the U.S. Marine Corps (as the AV-8A), and the Spanish Navy.
Though with modest subsonic speed, a 5,000-pound payload, and a short 380-mile combat radius, the 11-ton Harrier was a revolutionary combat aircraft in that the low- and high-pressure thrust from its Rolls Royce Pegasus turbofan engine was vectored through four swiveling exhaust nozzles, to achieve vertical and horizontal flight….