One day, I was hanging out on the SC. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info then saw that when mentioning the battle of Treasure Island, some people said some jokes with obvious mistakes. So it was pointed out. As a result, the other party said, "It's up to you?"

All I can say is, don't look at me like this, I was also a person who bought a lot of military magazines 10 years ago and became a military house. Although the level is relatively low, it can only be said to follow in the footsteps of others. But at the very least, I'm also a military enthusiast with rudimentary knowledge. At least I won't make the mistake of not knowing the difference between the nature of Dongfeng and the Guardian, and thinking that the invincible class can take off and land J15 normally

Well, anyway, I'm quite unhappy with the fact that some people are weird as soon as I post military posts. So let's write this post and let those people see it.

Gossip, straight to the point. The L15 trainer was once seen as a star of hope. Just looking at the appearance, it is very advanced. It is also produced by Hongdu, which once played the world with K8 and was very successful in the export of training aircraft. So everyone is very optimistic about it. Especially in 2006 (back in time, it was possible to save a good family, did anyone notice that there were a lot of disasters after that year? However, I feel that saving lives is more important) After the first flight, many military fans thought that there was great hope. Not only will the army purchase a large number of internally, but it will also replace the K8 and become a training aircraft that sweeps the world in the new era. As for its competitors, the Mountain Eagle trainer is considered to be backward and antique. Not worth mentioning at all. Some people are even clamoring that Guihang should finish as soon as possible and switch to the production of battery cars.

However, there is a saying in our country, "A dog that barks does not bite". Behind the reputation of the Internet and all kinds of print media, there are various mistakes that L15 has been deeply concealed. And those mistakes led to 2011, and some netizens are still spreading the "good news" that "L15 will be approved by the state".

Why did the L15, which was once pinned on high hopes, end up like this? Why did the Italians who stood shoulder to shoulder with the L15 back then, and the Slavic Yak-130 have all been exported or purchased domestically, and even the T-50 of the little South Korea is mixing well, but the L15 is still unpopular? Is it because the L15 is not advanced enough? I will make some analysis of the current failure of the L15. It must be mentioned that I am not an insider and have no related relationships. I don't know anything about professional knowledge. I'm just writing the following as an ordinary military fan.

First of all, the most important failure of L15 is to mention. If there is no such problem, then the other problems do not add up to the L15 today. I think a lot of people who have a military interest have already guessed what it is. That's right, it's the engine. The problem of power has plagued our weapons for a long time. From flying in the sky, swimming in the sea, and then running on the ground, they often suffer from "heart disease". Today, when our country is vigorously throwing money at it, the heart disease problem of many weapons has been improved. For example, those who swim in the sea have to get gas from Ukraine, and those who run on the ground have to get power units from Germany, although the aspect of flying in the sky is a little worse, but a lot of problems have been solved one after another. Although the J10 is still equipped with a Russian engine, the AL31 series dominates the situation of China's third-generation engine power has become a thing of the past...... However, the L15 made a big mistake when it came to engine issues.

For the development of an aircraft, the engine is extremely important. Although the French have a reputation for being good at piecing together good planes with bad engines. But that was also the last resort of the French. Throughout the world, the idea of "power first" has a profound impact. In layman's terms, "as long as the engine is powerful, the toilet can fly into the sky!" The early glory of the MiG jet was inseparable from the advanced jet engines provided by the British to the Soviet Union. However, the L15 made a major mistake in the choice of engine. The engine of the L15 was a foreign engine. Actually, it's nothing in itself. The level of J10 is not more important than that of L15? It is not the same as that of Russian engines, although it is possible to be stuck with foreign engines (for example, China's Wuzhi 10 originally used a Canadian engine with advanced performance, but because of the intervention of the United States, Canada stopped providing it. As a result, the Wuzhi 10 had to use a domestic engine with poor performance, which wasted time on the one hand, and reduced the performance of the Wuzhi 10 on the other hand. But Ukraine is a very poor country, and there is a lot of cooperation with our country. At the beginning of the 21st century, when many of our weapons were powered by Ukraine, it seems that it is not impossible for the L15 to choose Ukrainian engines...... But the problem is that the L15 actually chose an engine that Ukraine itself had not yet done at that time! It is said that the Russians like to fish for India. Because the third brother is stupid and has a lot of money. However, this time, Ukraine has caught a big Chinese fish. A beautiful meal. In this way, the progress of the entire L15 in its full form depends on the progress of the work of the Ukrainians. Our experts can stay up late and work overtime, how hard will the Ukrainians work for China's L15? Some people may say, didn't the L15 fly a long time ago? Yes, the L15 did fly. But it's not really the L15 full form that flies. Rather, it is a test flight prototype using a non-afterburner engine. That kind of aircraft is simply not enough to bring out the superior performance of the L15 on paper. Problems with the engine directly constrained the L15. The engine is the biggest mistake of the L15, and it is also the most terrible. In addition, there is another point to be put here for the time being, and that is the choice of double hair. While two turbofan engines offer advantages such as robustness, fuel consumption is also higher than that of a single-engine engine. And more importantly, one more engine costs a lot more money. Take fighter jets as an example, some countries can't afford to raise twin-engine aircraft, so they choose single-engine aircraft like the American F-16. And if a training aircraft like L15 also uses twin engines, it is not impossible, but it will bring the problem of luxury. As for the problem of luxury, we will talk about how serious it is below.

Secondly, there is the problem of positioning. Indeed, our weapons have a good reputation for being of good quality and low price, and have carved out a place in the international market. Therefore, some people mistakenly think that for the sake of my Heavenly Empire, I can make weapons that are better than others for very little money...... This is actually a misconception. The high quality and low price of China's weapons are mainly caused by the low labor costs in China. However, because of China's backward technology, in many places it is actually impossible to bring down the price of weapons without guaranteeing performance. Those weapons that are of good quality and low price are in fact often low-tech weapons. The so-called Wumart is often only reliable in quality, not advanced in technology. Many people think that China can make high-tech such as fourth-generation aircraft and even aircraft carriers and sell them at a cabbage price, but this is actually a wrong perception. For example, when Thailand purchased warships, it chose to buy China's high-quality and low-cost hulls, while most of the high-tech weapons such as the real key weapons were purchased from Europe and the United States. They have given full play to the advantages of China and European and American countries. And specifically on the plane, Pakistan has a similar meaning. They think that the performance of the Thunder Dragon fighter made in China is good, but the avionics are better than those from France, and the Thunder with Mika is more suitable than the medium-range active bomb produced in China. And the K8 trainer that has been selling very well is actually the same. Many countries buy equipment, in fact, the K8 that uses Western engines and avionics, and China's Hongdu is actually mainly ...... It is precisely because of the same reason that the intermediate training aircraft equipped by China is actually not the same as the K8 exported to China, and it is worse in terms of performance, because it uses China's own engine with worse performance than Europe and the United States...... But in any case, K8 has succeeded, and its success has a lot to do with its positioning, in addition to promoting its strengths and avoiding weaknesses. The K8 is a durable mid-level trainer. For this level of training aircraft, some countries do not develop and produce, either people use advanced training aircraft to take care of this part of the training, or use the primary training aircraft to take care of this part of the training. However, for many countries, there is actually no need to equip advanced training aircraft, and that training is simply a luxury for some backward countries. So those countries often choose to send pilots abroad for training. However, for those countries, it is not possible to train pilots abroad for the entire process. So there is a need for a relatively cheap and sufficiently powerful trainer aircraft, in addition to the training mission, it is also responsible for some simple combat missions (hanging cannons and rockets, bombarding drug dealers, tribal forces, rebels, etc.), so K8 occupies a vacant position in the market. It has achieved a brilliant performance of occupying 70% of the international market share of intermediate training aircraft.

At L15, however, this is no longer the case. When it comes to performance in the L15, that's really not to say. It is definitely worthy of the world-class level. However, with the improvement of performance, the price has also risen. Even a country like ours, whose military spending is rising year by year, is staggered. Not to mention those traditional users of our aircraft. From Pakistan to Egypt, which country can afford to buy an L-15? The so-called "small-scale air force of a large number of third world countries can be its users" is just a picture of bread to satisfy hunger! Yes, it is not that no country can afford to buy an L15, and there are some countries like that, but there are countries that can afford to buy advanced advanced trainer planes, and they are either traditional users of European and American planes, or traditional users of Russian aircraft, and these two markets allow the M346 and Yak-130 to eat well, and it is unlikely that the L15 will be killed. However, Indonesia was a country that was interested in China's high-level training aircraft, but people were also looking at the Mountain Eagle with no problem with the progress at that time. The Falcon was still stuck in the engine at that time. And today Indonesia has hooked up with South Korea on the issue of higher education planes. And the same problem of positioning, the advantages that were boasted as a cheap fighter back then are gone. You must know that the high-end version of the L15 has gradually caught up with the J10! Not the performance, but the price! People can buy the J10 as soon as they grit their teeth, and who wants to use the L15 to fight air battles? Even if it is a poor country that cannot afford the J10, it is more cost-effective to buy a serious fighter Thunder than the L15! The so-called idea of the L15 acting as an entry-level fighter has now been shattered by the price.

In addition to this, the problem of positioning the L15 lies in the conception of the aircraft itself. The L15 is fashionable, and it is a new advanced trainer idea, which wants to simulate fighter capabilities. However, one of the problems brought about by that was that there were too many new things in this overly advanced aircraft, and if the Air Force adopted the L15, it would require a new maintenance system, which would be too costly.

Details can't determine success or failure, but details can be related to success or failure, in addition to the above big problems, L15 has some small problems, such as the chief engineer's choice of mistakes. For an aircraft, its chief engineer is crucial. The success of the MiG machine is inseparable from Mikoyan's talent. Of course, we can't accuse the chief engineer of L15 of not working hard enough. However, he came from a background in aviation weapons, and now it seems that he does have a lack of talent for aircraft design. Also, I have to say a word when it comes to this. The L15 is not a real Chinese aircraft as some people think. The emergence of the L15 is inseparable from the efforts of the Jacques. It was Hongdu who spent money to buy the design of the Jacques to have the L15 with excellent performance.

and L15's body composite has certain problems. This further erodes the advantages of the L15.

All this has finally led to the embarrassing situation that this good aircraft has ended up in today. However, there is no need to regret that "a good Chinese aircraft is finished." In fact, according to some of the more radical narratives, Hongdu has lost the ability to design a good aircraft on his own. Even the Chujiao-7, a junior training aircraft that uses propellers, has to be jointly developed and produced with the Russian Yak Design Bureau! There are even bitter people who call Hongdu the Yak's branch in China! And the L15 actually has too many ambiguous relations with the Yak-130, and in some military circles with a high degree of professionalism, there is even the saying that the Yaks people used China's money to carry out their unfinished projects......

Of course, the current failure of L15 is also influenced by factors other than L15. That's because there is a strong competitor, the Mountain Eagle trainer.

Contrary to what some people claim, the Mountain Hawk, a trainer aircraft that has developed from the MiG-21 to such a point, is actually not only capable of training pilots of second-generation aircraft. In fact, it has the ability to train pilots of third-generation aircraft. Then, it has a minimum chance to compete with the L15. However, in other places, Shanying also showed a very competitive spirit, first of all, the Guihang people fought against the water, in the end, they completed the development of the aircraft early, and took the lead. And the positioning is accurate. It doesn't take too much money and doesn't need to change the system too much, and Shanying can enlist in the army. So, when the L15 was still far away, the Mountain Eagle was already in service in batches. Even, we can see the Mountain Eagle trainer with a tail hook. That is, most likely, it will even be on board as a carrier-based trainer. As for the backward performance of the mountain eagle that many people criticize. With money, everything is easy to say, and Shanying has taken the lead. Next, change the telex, change the rear fuselage, the fan is a matter of course.

So, is the L15 hopeless?

Not necessarily!

You know, the service life of the trainer aircraft is very long

The Mountain Eagle can meet the current needs, and the pilot problem of the fourth-generation aircraft can be temporarily solved by selecting the best of the best. And what about later?

So, in the future, there is still a chance for the L15. It depends on whether the Hongdu people can grasp it.