In 1964 the Chinese aircraft industry began to develop an advanced trainer derivative of the J-5, a successor to the JJ-2 which ,by the 1960s, could not quite meet the People's Liberation Army Air Force's (PLAAF) requirements. It was designated as JJ-5 and had no Soviet equivalent, as it was a cross-breed between the MiG-15UTI and the MiG-17, combining the former's cockpit section mated to the fuselage of a MiG-17. The crew members sat in tandem, with the trainee's canopy section opening to starboard and the instructor's canopy section sliding aft.
The shape of the nose resembled the MiG-17PF (J-5A) with its characteristic 'fat-lip'. However, the aircraft had no radar, the nose was all-metal and there was no intake centre-body. The JJ-5 was powered by a WP-5D engine (AKA TJ-5D) non-afterburning turbojet (which was the Chinese licensed copy of the Klimov VK-1A manufactured by Xian Engine Factory) rated at 5952 lbst of thrust. Its rear fuselage was shaped similar to that of the MiG-17, yet, it had airbrakes taken from the MiG-17F/MiG-17PF (J-5).
The Chinese engineers chose to eliminate the built-in weapons tray, which was a distinctive feature of the MiG-15 and MiG-17 (J-5). Instead the JJ-5 had a single 23 mm (0.5 in calibre) Type 23 (NR-23) cannon mounted low on the starboard side of the nose. Additional pylons for air-to-ground could be fitted outboard of the drop tank hardpoints. The cockpits were equipped with an intercom and semi-automatic ejection seats which could not be used safely below 260 m (853 ft) high at speeds up to 350 km/h (217 mph) or below 2000 m (6560 ft) at higher speeds.
Work on prototype's construction began on 25th March 1965 and the prototype flew for the first time on 8th May 1966. After completing its flight test programme, the trainer entered production at Chengdu. Some sources claim the JJ-5 was also built at Shenyang as the JJ-5 has two c/n systems, which appears to support this theory. One system (Chengdu production) is straightforward, for example the 1609, belonging to the 16th batch, with nine aircraft. The other system (Shenyang production) is a little more complicated, for example, the aircraft numbered 55-1206. The first two digits may be an in-house production code, belonging to Shenyang industries. However, it may be possible that the '55' prefix was simply dropped after a certain number of batches had been built.
Anyway 1061 exemplars were manufactured from 1966 until 1983 when production ceased (some sources claim that production ceased in 1986).
Deliveries to the PLAAF began on 30th November 1967 and, as we pointed in our previous post, it was exported to many countries, among them, North Korea, whose air force bought 135 exemplars in the early 1970s and it's believed that they are kept in active service nowadays in the trainer role.
Additionally to the PLAAF's flying academies, the JJ-5 served as the mount of the PLAAF's 'August 1st' display team for a while. The team's aircraft wore a red/white livery and were equipped with a smoke generator system injecting a mixture of diesel fuel and dye into the engine jetpipe. A supply of mixture was carried in two slender cigar-shaped tanks attached to the standard drop-tank hardpoints. At least one of the team's JJ-5s (with serial 507 white) had a non-standard curved windscreen, in place of the usual three-pieced windshield.
Sources:
1. Hikoki Publications Chinese Aircraft China's Aviation History since 1951
2. https://www.valka.cz/topic/view/80750
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_People%27s_Army_Air_and_Anti-Air_Force
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenyang_J-5
5. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
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