Selfie of Chinese Pilot as his J-15 naval fighter plane launches from China’s aircraft carrier

April 16, 2014 Aircraft Carriers, China, Selfies, Troubled Areas
David Cenciotti

It looks like Chinese pilots like self-portrait photos as their “Western” colleagues

We have already published an interesting “selfie” (as self-potrait shots are dubbed) taken by a PLANAF (People Liberation Army Naval Air Force) Shenyang J-15 “Flying Shark” pilot.

It’s not clear whether the following image was taken during the same flight. Nevertheless it is quite cool as it was taken during the departure of the jet from the angled flight deck of Liaoning, the China’s first (Soviet-era, refurbished) aircraft carrier.

The J-15 is a domestic variant of the Russian-designed Sukhoi Su-33, the carrier-based derivative of the Su-27 Flanker.

Image credit: PLANAF via Alert5.com

 

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About David Cenciotti
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David Cenciotti is a freelance journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

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2 Comments

  1. The Flanker carries plenty of fuel; the notion that the ski ramp somehow hinders the capabilities of the jet only applies to the maximum payload it carriers, which is dependent on the engine thrust and not the fuel load.

  2. Satire is fine, but the quote is much appriciated :)

    Two tonnes of missiles though, that’s still two R-37’s (or Kh-31’s) and six R-73’s (or PL-9’s)… It’s not a full load out, but hardly “nothing at all to worry about” as Corbis claims, up there. It just… Doesn’t seem all that bad to me. :?

    Unless has both the short range and the limited ammunition, then indeed I can see how it would make for only limited power projection – that or a huge hassle with tanker aircraft. The point of such an air craft carrier is to have an airforce somewhere else than your mainland, after all.

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