No canards, no buy… 
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I don’t mind the design at all, I’ve seen uglier planes.
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It reminds me of the “stealth fighter” in Arma 3. Love the stabilisers
Ok, so they appear to be saying this will run on a single one of the Su-57’s engines. It claims to be 19,000 kg in thrust. That’s 42,000 lbs which is F-35’s thrust…but that inlet looks wrong for that.
Aux intakes (F-5 has entered the chat…) would make a ton of sense, as they could aid in reduction of radar cross section. Also if it’s a static intake out front, having one smaller forward intake and some aux intakes can function as a poor-mans variable inlet; best of both worlds potentially.
I feel like if the SAAB Gripen and F-35 had a baby, this would be it. It strikes me as a small but efficient, “everything you need, nothing you don’t” design. Figure Griphen does with one F404 what the Hornet does with 2. Same idea here. Conversely, The f-35s bloated form (even on the F-35A) betrays that it is a machine that was built to land on carriers and contain VTOL hardware. Inefficient and unfocused design requirements beget inefficient unfocused designs. What we have here is seems a study in the opposite. As an american tax payer, with one hand I tip my hat to the Russians, and with the other I slap Lockheed Martin (and congress…) upside the head.
Some issues I see though:
It’s sleek design does potentially signal reduced range, but if it’s indeed a Mig-21 successor, it’s a point interceptor working with ground control intercept controllers anyway. Half the proposed customer base likely subscribes to the Iranian model of “don’t given them enough fuel to defect” model of pilot management anyway, so small legs = feature, not bug.
Not a lot of room for hard points, nor am I seeing a lot of room for internal bays for weapon storage. Fully loaded versions likely would go to war with their fangs hanging bare for all the worlds radars to see. Advantage: F-35. In reality, I think it’ll be billed more as a “reduced radar cross section” aircraft such as the Super Hornet, vice a pure Gen 5 “Stealth” door kicker. Among other things, second world countries likely can’t afford the obscene maintenance requirements for RAM paint.
Tiny nose = tiny radar. Further indicates Mig-21 2.0. Someone else is telling the pilot where the capitalists dogs are; onboard beamer is for terminal intercept phase, opposed to searching.
So, in summary this looks like a classic interceptor design. Small, light, fast, short ranged, lightly armed, but able to get to a block of airspace quickly. Reduced radar section helps give it a fighting chance to get some shots off before hostile escorts can counter-intercept. Still, I’d rather be sitting in an F-35 if there was a show down. F-35 will likely see this before it sees F-35.
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At least the canopy opens the correct way versus the f-35 (which I could never find an explanation for).
I am recently hardwired to hate anything out of that country. But I grudgingly like it. The F-35 is fugly. This seems to be a copy but with some of the worst aesthetic tendencies of the original corrected.
An old ATF contender apparently from Northrop.
Stealth Aircraft design is maybe becoming a bit like rock music after 1991
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The F-35 is what happens when people believe computers are magic.
We can make one plane, with 90% commonality among 3 branches, that can replace half a dozen different designs for missions of all types, that is also a stealthy gen 5 design, for less than the price of a Super Hornet, and we don’t even need to go through full EMD before we start mass producing them, saving even more time and money!
I don’t know whether this idea came from the military, a civilian, or a contractor, or whether they also worked together to come up with this in some capacity, but it has been proven to be absolutely false. The plane does what it was designed to do, and pretty well, based on the specifications and requirements laid down. THOSE are the source of the problem. No one could have done better.
Had Boeing won, we’d be talking about the lousy F-32 instead experiencing similar if not identical issues.
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Two guesses:
- when in doubt, I assume that any and all F-35 weirdness owes to the USMC, and the need for a the fan hump behind the cockpit. In this case I assume it means the mechanics for a rear hinged canopy wouldn’t have fit.
- Possible safety feature; if the canopy unlocks air flow keeps it shut versus being ripped off.
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No doubt, and these are all valid points. IIRC, JSF wasn’t a military lead concept. It was congress wanting to save money, and the idea of “we’ll just design and build one magic do everything airplane” was easy to sell to a generally uneducated public.
What does seem to generally work, is sharing of sub-components, especially keystone ones: Engines, radar, fire control systems, etc. A radar that works well on a navy plane likely works just as well on an air force plane. Sure the navalized version would need minor changes like corrosion resistant coatings, but the core engineering translates well. But that’s not as politically sexy as a single plane.
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Don’t forget the RAF. We helped stir that paint! 
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is that an actual person narrating that video, or is it computerized voice?
also, are all airplane roll out videos that weird? Thinking about it I don’t know if I’ve ever actually watched one.
So many lasers!
It’s funny how the F-22 Clone Showed up in less than a year after the schematics were “accidently” left in a export data package, and then F-22A Tooling Crates were found to be empty in storage.
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That said, the rear aspect profile is really kinda sexy.
Huh. That is one peculiar looking airframe. Only 8G?! With such a huge wing. I bet it can do some mighty impressive bat turns and falling leaf maneouvres.
You don’t like grunge?
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You are forgetting the Royal Navy and RAF (whom admittedly are in bed with the USMC). They help set the specs for the F-35B. The F-35 is very much an export aircraft. Joint meaning not only joint services but built for NATO. Edit: I see @Victork2 had similar thoughts. The Marines also have the C.
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