Nanchang Q-5, part one

 

The Nanchang Q-5 is a Chinese-built single seat twin-engine jet fighter ground attack aircraft heavily based on the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 which is heavily used in the ground attack role.

Its origin can be traced back to the late 1950s when, in August 1958 the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) requested a jet attack aircraft for the ground attack role. 

Lu Xiaopeng was named chief designer of this project which, although based on the MiG-19, this new design, named initially as Qiangjiji-5 (5th fifth attack aircraft design), had a longer fuselage, area ruled to reduce transonic drag and fit a 4 m (13-ft) long internal weapons bay. The air intakes were placed at the sides of the fuselage to make room for a planned target radar in the nose which, eventually, it was never fitted. New wings with greater area and reduced sweep were also incorporated, though they were similarly looking to those of the MiG-19. The Q-5 was powered by the Liming-Wopen WP-6A turbojet engine which is itself a copy of the Soviet Tumansky RD-9, with 6.610 lbf of thrust power.

The redesign meant that the Q-5 was a bit slower at high altitude than the MiG-19, but at low altitudes it proved to be equally faster thanks to the area-ruled fuselage.

Production armament consists on two Type-23-1 23 mm guns mounted in the wing roots, two pylons under each wing and two additional pair of pylons under the engines were also provided in addition to the weapons bay. A total of 1.000 kg (2.205 lb) of ordnance could be carried internally with additional external 1.000 kg externally. On many aircraft the weapons bay were fitted with an auxiliary fuel tank.

Many variants were made, though in this post we're just covering some of them:

• Q-5: The original production version of the 1960s. It was equipped with a total of 6 pylons, two under each wing and two under the fuselage. Replaced by the Q-5A.
• Q-5Jia: A regular Q-5 modified to carry tactical nuclear bombs. Very few were converted to this role and some of them were fitted with the 317Jia radar as an improvement program. 
• Q-5I: AKA Q-5A. This version was a regular Q-5 with the internal weapons bay replaced with an additional fuel tank which increased fuel capacity in 70% more. A Chinese-built Type 74Y4 laser rangefinder was also fitted.
• Q-5IA: AKA Q-5B. Improved Q-5A with radar warning receiver and flare dispensers. It was equipped with an improved weapon aiming sight which allowed the attacks to be carried out from different angles. Extra outer pylons on outer wings were also added for PL-2/PL-5 air-to-air missiles, bombs or rocket launchers.
• Q-5Yia: AKA Q-5B (denomination given by the People's Liberation Army Navy - PLAN). A torpedo attacker developed for the PLAN. It was initially going to be equipped with YJ-8 anti-ship missiles but the programme was cancelled because of budget problems, even with the missile well developed. It was tried to retake the project in the 1980s but it was decided to give the role to the Xian JH-7. 
• A-5C: Export version fitted with western avionics which we already covered in previous posts.
• Q-5D: An interim attack aircraft introduced during the 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis. It featured improved avionics and radar.

Sources:

1. Midland Publishing - Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19. The Soviet Union's First Production Supersonic Fighter

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanchang_Q-5

Shenyang J-6, Chinese users, part three

 

The Shenyang J-6 is the Chinese copy of the Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19. With more than 4.500 units completed, it comes no surprise that this machine was completed in many variants, which are the subject of this post.

• Shenyang J-6: AKA Dongfeng-102 and Type 59. The original production version of the MiG-19S with some changes which make it slightly different. Flew for the first time on 30th September 1959, but due to the poor economical conditions caused by the Great Leap Forward, its development was interrupted in 1960, but resumed four years later, in 1964, with Soviet assistance. Several hundreds built.
• Shenyang J-6A: AKA Dongfeng-103 and Type 59A. This variant is equivalent to the MiG-19P with some changes which made it worse than the original as it had a limited scope when flying in bad weather conditions or a RP-1 radar limited to 2 km only. It was armed with two 30 mm cannons placed at the root of the wings. It flew for the first time on 17th December 1958 with Wang Shuhuai at the controls. Only 90 machines were manufactured, 83 of them at Shenyang and just 7 at Nanchang where they were equipped and tested in the 1970s with air-to-air missiles. Given the poor quality of the machine, it never passed People's Liberation Army Air Force's tests and was rejected in favour of the J-6B.
• Shenyang J-6B: AKA Dongfeng-105 and Type 59B. This is the Chinese equivalent of the MiG-19PM. It flew for the first time in 1963 and several dozens of them were manufactured at Nanchang until 1967 when it ceased. Production was, however, resumed again in 1976 to manufactured some few dozens, albeit some sources claim that only 19 of them were built. Like the MiG-19PM, it was armed with a total of four PL-2 air-to-air missiles and, unlike its Soviet counterpart, it's armed with additional two cannons placed at the root of the wings.
• Shenyang J-6C: AKA Jianjiji-6 Bing, Product-55 and F-6C for the export sub-variants. This is a modernised version of the J-6 with a new Wopen WP-6A engine which delivers 6.614 lb of thrust power (for comparison, the WP-6 that powered the previous variant had 5.730 lb of thrust power). It's armed with three 30 mm cannons, two at the root of the wings, one under the nose and it's equipped with a braking parachute located in a pod at the base of the rudder. It flew for the first time on 6th August 1969 and has been, by far, the most produced variant with around 3.677 machines having been manufactured by Shenyang, including some regular J-6 converted to J-6C standard. Production ceased in 1984.
• Shenyang JZ-6: A sub-variant for the J-6 dedicated for tactical-reconnaissance role and equipped with five cameras in the bow. Flew for the first time in 1967 and a total of 50 machines were manufactured.
• Shenyang J-6 I: A day-fighter prototype with a redesigned frontal air intake, equipped with a shock cone. It was intended to serve as a lightweight fighter. Only one machine built and flown on 2nd August 1966.
• Shenyang J-6 II: A modification of the original J-6 I with an adjustable shock cone in four positions on a raked back intake splitter plate. It was also better armed as it was intended to be a tactical fighter. It flew for the first time on 25th March 1969 and only one prototype was built plus the modified J-6 I.
• Shenyang J-6 III: A J-6 II modified with a radome on the splitter plate instead of centred shock cone to fit a Chinese-made LCF-6 radar. A total of 303 machines were made with the initial flight taking place on 5th August 1969. The production was terminated prematurely as they aircraft suffered from poor quality and many of them had to be rebuilt and repaired several times.
  It saw two sub-variants, the J-6 IIIC, which featured a modified bow, hydraulic wheels and was made in 1971 and the J-6 IIIG which was another re-conversion with a different bow, some minor changes made to the wing-tips to equip two PL-5 air-to-air missiles. Only 5 prototypes were made and the initial flight took place on 1st August 1974.
• Guizhou J-6 IV: Another conversion of the J-6 III, this time made by Guizhou, to make the J-6 III into an all-weather supersonic fighter with two 30 mm cannons at the root of the wings and a radar. Only 7 machines built by Guizhou with the first prototype flying on 24th September 1976.
• Shenyang JJ-6: AKA Product 48 or FT-6 for the export version. The two-seater training variant stretched 84 cm (33.1 in) to accomodate a second seat and armed with just one 30 mm cannon placed under the nose. Flew for the first time on 6th November 1970 and a total of 886 machines have been built by Shenyang and Tianjing between 1970 and 1986 when production ceased. One of them, made by Tiajing, was used to test an H-5 ejection seatbelt.
• Xian BW-1: Experimental aircraft made on 5th November 1988 equipped with fly-by-wire technology converted from the JJ-6. The rear seat was replaced with measuring and testing equipment and tests took place between 1988 and 1989. The aircraft was controlled by two different systems, a mechanical one and an electronic one which were revealed to be the control system used in the Xian JH-7 fighter-bomber.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenyang_J-6

2. https://www.valka.cz/Sen-jang-J-6-kod-NATO-Farmer-t42341 (translated)

3. Midland Publishing - Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 - The Soviet Union's First Production Supersonic Fighter

Chengdu JJ-5 (FT-5)

Note: This is our 900th post! Hooray!
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