The Nanchang J-12 (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

: 歼-12) was a lightweight

supersonic Supersonic speed is the speed of an object that exceeds the speed of sound ( Mach 1). For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C (68 °F) at sea level, this speed is approximately . Speeds greater than five times ...

fighter built by the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, intended for use by the

People's Liberation Army Air Force The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF; ), also known as the Chinese Air Force (中国空军) or the People's Air Force (人民空军), is an aerial service branch of the People's Liberation Army, the regular armed forces of the Peo ...

(PLAAF). It was one of the first serious attempts by Chinese aircraft manufacturers to develop an indigenous, modern

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fighter. Weighing empty, the J-12 is one of the lightest jet fighters ever built. However, neither the J-12 nor the related

Shenyang J-13 The Shenyang J-13 (Chinese: 歼-13; traditional: 殲-13) was a long-running Chinese project by Shenyang Aircraft Corporation to develop a light-weight, single engine fighter aircraft, that was ultimately cancelled. Development As early as 1971 ...

project entered service.

Design and development

In 1969, the PLAAF issued an order to build a small, inexpensive,

STOL A short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft is a conventional fixed-wing aircraft that has short runway requirements for takeoff and landing. Many STOL-designed aircraft also feature various arrangements for use on airstrips with harsh conditio ...

(short takeoff and landing) lightweight fighter in order to replace the

MiG-19 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-19; NATO reporting name: Farmer) is a Soviet second generation, single-seat, twinjet fighter aircraft, the world's first mass-produced supersonic aircraft. It was the ...

. Two designs were submitted, namely the Shenyang J-11 and the Nanchang J-12. Prototypes of the J-12 were designed by

Lu Xiaopeng Lu Xiaopeng (; 19 August 1920 – 16 October 2000) was a Chinese aircraft designer who spent most of his career at Hongdu Aviation (formerly Nanchang Aircraft). He was the chief designer of the Nanchang Q-5 supersonic attack aircraft, one of the ...

and built by the Nanchang Aircraft Manufacturing Company (NAMC). The J-12 was a small single-seat jet fighter with low-set,

swept wing A swept wing is a wing that angles either backward or occasionally forward from its root rather than in a straight sideways direction. Swept wings have been flown since the pioneer days of aviation. Wing sweep at high speeds was first investigate ...

s, swept control surfaces, tubular fuselage, and nose intake with small or absent

shock cone Inlet cones (sometimes called shock cones or inlet centerbodies) are a component of some supersonic aircraft and missiles. They are primarily used on ramjets, such as the D-21 Tagboard and Lockheed X-7. Some turbojet aircraft including the Su ...

and flight testing began on 26 December 1970. Due to less than satisfactory performance, three additional J-12I prototypes were built with improvements such as simplified control surfaces, a lighter

area rule The Whitcomb area rule, named after NACA engineer Richard Whitcomb and also called the transonic area rule, is a design procedure used to reduce an aircraft's drag at transonic speeds which occur between about Mach 0.75 and 1.2. For supersonic ...

d fuselage, and revised intake. In 1977 the development of J-12 was abandoned, due to inadequate firepower and engine thrust and also likely due to the introduction of the

Chengdu J-7 The Chengdu J-7 (Chinese: 歼-7; third generation export version F-7; NATO reporting name: Fishcan) is a People's Republic of China fighter aircraft. It is a license-built version of the Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21, and thus shares many si ...

, that offered superior performance and was based on the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

MiG-21 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-21; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nickna ...

F. The J-12 prototypes had accumulated 61 hours in 135 flights by 1977. In 1990s, Lu Xiaopeng proposed upgrading the J-12's fighter design with a reduced

Radar cross-section Radar cross-section (RCS), also called radar signature, is a measure of how detectable an object is by radar. A larger RCS indicates that an object is more easily detected. An object reflects a limited amount of radar energy back to the source. ...

to make the J-12 stealthy, and suggested a modified J-12 fighter to a carrier based fighter for

PLA Navy The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN; ), also known as the People's Navy, Chinese Navy, or PLA Navy, is the maritime service branch of the People's Liberation Army. The PLAN traces its lineage to naval units fighting during the Chinese ...

, but none of the proposals were accepted.

Variants

;J-12:The initial version of the light fighter with pitot bi-furcated air intake and non-afterburning engine ;J-12I: (aka J-12A) Improved J-12 powered by a Wopen WP-6Z afterburning turbojet

Specifications (J-12)

References

External links

Airwar.ru
(page in

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

)
Uncommon Aircraft

Images of preserved J-12s at Airliners.net

(

) {{PRC fighters J-12, Nanchang J-12 Cancelled military aircraft projects of China