It appears that there has been at least some success, as the latest J-20 prototypes are powered by upgraded WS-10 engines that are supposedly stealthier and more powerful than the AL-31. Credit: Military Watch Magazine.
Asia Times: Throttle up: China closes the jet engine gap
Ongoing difficulty in producing a high-quality indigenous jet engine remains a major issue for the PLAAF, for now
The Chinese defense industrial base is infamous for its tendency to “borrow” from foreign designs, particularly in the aerospace industry.
Almost the entirety of China’s modern fighter fleet have either borrowed liberally from or directly copied foreign models.
The J-10 was reputedly based on the Israeli IAI Lavi and by extension the United States’ General Dynamics F-16; the J-11 is a clone of the Russian Su-27; the JF-17 is a modern development of the Soviet MiG-21; the J-20 bears an uncanny resemblance to the F-22, and finally, the J-31 is widely believed to rely heavily on technology appropriated from the F-35.
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WNU editor: I give it another decade or two before China starts developing jet engines that are comparable to what everyone else has.
