Two-seat Chinese fighter J-20 photographed on a run

(Credit: 飞扬军事铁背心)

Photos and videos of a two-seat version of the Chinese J-20 fighter jet have appeared on the Weibo social network. It could become the first fifth generation fighter with this configuration.

Two-seat fighters are great for training flights, and a two-man crew can handle sensor and weapon data more easily. But the construction of such aircraft is much more expensive, and all fifth-generation fighters are single-seat.

Fourth generation fighters have two-seat versions, including the Dassault Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon, Boeing F-15 Eagle and Su-27. The multi-functional Korean fighter KF-X of the 4 ++ generation is being developed immediately in single and two-seat versions.

The J-20 is periodically referred to as the fourth or fifth generation. The Chinese military themselves rank it as the fourth, but they consider generations by the time the aircraft was adopted in service, and not by its characteristics.

And, although the term itself is conditional and controversial, the J-20 has the signs of a fifth-generation fighter. For example, the widespread use of stealth technologies.

The Chinese Air Force adopted the J-20 in service in 2017. A year later, Yang Wei, deputy director of science and technology at AVIC Corporation, announced that a whole family of combat aircraft would be developed on the basis of this fighter. And this winter, the corporation posted a concept video with a two-seater J-20.

At the end of October, the first photos and videos of taxiing and jogging of the two-seater J-20 appeared on the Weibo social network. It differs from the regular version by an elongated cockpit canopy and yellow color.

Sources: https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4696994825634499
https://share.api.weibo.cn/share/258391223.html?weibo_id=4696979563089124
https://twitter.com/RupprechtDeino/status/1453340193675747331?s=20