As early as 2022, Pakistan had already purchased Chinese J-10 fighters, and not long after buying the J-10, Pakistan had disclosed the performance data of the J-10CE in its hands.
The data released this time also made the West realize that the heart of the PLA fighter has been reborn!
In other words, China has caught up in the field of aviation development.
Development of the turbofan-10 engine
According to the data released by the Pakistani side, the J-10CE has a maximum flight speed of Mach 1.8 and a maximum flight altitude of 17,000 meters. The maximum range is 3398 km, and if the bomb is hung, its combat range is 2592 km.
In terms of aviation development, the aircraft engine used by the J-10CE has an empty weight of 9.75 tons (counting the empty weight used in fuel, packaging, etc., it is heavier than a pure empty weight), a thrust of 9.094 tons, and a maximum thrust of 14.515 tons after afterburner.
Pakistan's J-10CE fighter
With this data from Pakistan, we can be sure of a lot at the moment.
The first is that it can be established that the J-10C no longer uses the AL-31 engines from the Russian side.
When the J-10A was put into service, the domestic aviation turbofan-10 was not very good in terms of life and performance, so China directly imported the AL-31 engine from Russia at that time, and then used it on the J-10 fighter body.
The J-10A series is basically equipped with AL-31 engines. Later, the J-10B entered service, and the continent made a lot of breakthroughs in the technology of the turbofan-10 engine, using the turbofan-10B aviation engine.
After the turbofan-10B technology reached the standard, the aviation engine used by the J-10B fighter was a mixture of turbofan-10B and AL-31 engines.
J-10B fighter
Later, there were many sub-models under the turbofan-10B, including the turbofan-10B-3, and the subsequent turbofan-10C aviation engine developed by Continental, and the turbofan-10 series of Continental also surpassed the AL-31 engine.
The thrust of the Russian AL-31 engine is 7.6 tons without afterburner, which is much smaller than the 9.094 tons used by the J-10CE.
With afterburner, the maximum thrust of the AL-31 engine is 12.5 tons (the AL-31F version used in China), which is much smaller than the J-10CE's 14.515 tons after using the afterburner.
Judging from this data, the J-10CE fighter bought by Pakistan should use the turbofan-10C aviation engine. This data is not unadvanced compared to the AL-31 engine of the year.
Turbofan-10C
涡扇-10C和F110-GE-132
Secondly, from this performance data, we can see that the turbofan-10C is aimed at the F110-GE-132 engine of the United States.
The thrust-to-weight ratio of the F110-GE-132 engine is 7.8, and the maximum thrust is also about 14.5 tons. The aircraft engine was used on the 80th F-16 fuselage, and the first was delivered in 2003.
If you just look at the age, the F110-GE-132 engine was born more than 10 years earlier than the Chinese turbofan-10C. However, in the past 20 years or so, the United States has not made much breakthrough in military aviation technology.
F110-GE-132 engine
Nearly 5,000 F-16 fighters have been produced in the entire series, of which basically all use F110-GE-132 engines.
The latest version of the F-16V in the American F-16 fighter also uses the F110-GE-132 engine.
In other words, the engines used in the American F-16 fighters have not been changed in the last 20 years, and the F110-GE-132 engine is already the "final model".
The fact that the Continental turbofan-10C can reach the level of the F110-GE-132 engine in terms of performance parameters has already shown that China has caught up with the level of the United States in the field of high-thrust engines.
In addition, for the performance parameters of the turbofan-10C, some people believe that its full service life is inferior to the American F110-GE-132 engine, reaching about 80% of the latter.
F110-GE-132 engine
The full service life of the engine is also very important, after all, the most expensive thing on the fighter is mainly the engine, in addition to those electronic equipment.
The service life of the engine can be increased by 20%, which is equivalent to you spending 20% less money in this area, which can save a lot of money.
And the fighter has a higher service life, which means that your aviation technology level is higher.
Because the whole service life of Hangfa is closely related to the heating capacity of the core aircraft. The core function is resistant to higher temperatures, and the natural service life is high.
If Hangfa wants to further improve its performance, it will basically make the temperature in the combustion chamber higher. In other words, your engine can withstand higher temperatures before you can talk about engine performance improvements.
Aviation engine combustion chamber
As for why not continue to improve the stability of the combustion chamber and further improve the performance of the aviation engine, it is mainly a matter of cost. The current performance parameters of the F110-GE-132 engine are balanced between cost and combat capabilities.
Therefore, if the full service life of the turbofan-10C is really only about 80% of that of the F110-GE-132 engine, it is indeed a relatively big problem.
But we don't have to worry about that. First, the full service life of the turbofan-10C is much longer than the Russian AL-31 engine previously used by the mainland.
Second, technology will progress, and China's aviation development technology is not slow at all. In China's military development route, the turbofan-10C aviation engine may have some sub-models in the future, and there may be follow-up models such as the turbofan-10D.
Turbofan-10 engine
Therefore, in terms of relevant technology, China and the United States have obviously not reached the end.
Turbofan-15 engine
In addition, for high-thrust engines, everyone knows that Continental also has a turbofan-15 engine.
The turbofan-10 series engine has a diameter of 1.16 meters, a length of 4.95 meters (with the nozzle fully open), and a weight of about 1.7 tons. The turbofan-15 engine has a direct length of 1.025 meters, a length of 5.05 meters, and a weight of about 1.7 tons.
The two are similar in size, but the performance is far behind.
Turbofan-15
At present, it is speculated that the maximum thrust of the turbofan-15 exceeds 18.5 tons, which is greater than the 16 tons of the F119-PW-100 engine used by the American F-22 fighter and slightly smaller than the 19.5 tons of the F135-PW-100 aviation engine used by the F-35 fighter.
It is also a high-thrust aviation engine, turbofan-10C is 14 tons of thrust, and turbofan-15 is 18 tons of thrust, and the reason behind it is closely related to life.
One deliberately lowers the temperature of the combustion chamber to increase its life, and the other limits the performance of the aviation engine but reduces its service life.
F-22 fighter jets used for aviation development
The continental turbofan-15 engine can surpass the F-22 fighter in thrust and be close to the F-35 fighter using the aviation engine, which shows that the aviation engine technology of China and the United States is actually quite close.
In addition, the maximum thrust of the turbofan-15 engine is not necessarily inferior to the F135-PW-100 aviation engine used by the F-35, after all, the current performance parameters of the turbofan-15 are all guesses, what if the maximum thrust of the turbofan-15 can also reach 19 tons?
Turbofan-15
And as we said above, the mainland's aviation technology is progressing quite fast. After the mass production of the first batch of turbofan-15, there will probably be sub-models in the future, and the technology will be further improved.
Resources:
[1] The Central Committee of the Communist Youth League "China-made J-10CE, officially installed in the Pakistan Air Force! It is also filled with "Chinese heart"
[2] China's well-off network "Pratt & Whitney's engine is very powerful? This award says it all》