China’s VSTOL Adventure?
Will China resurrect the Yak-141, or something along those lines? I have doubts…
Abraham Ait has suggested that the U.S. Navy should begin to think about China’s new amphibs along the same terms that it thinks about its own amphibious ships; as potential light aircraft carriers. In particular, he raises the question of whether China could consider developing or acquiring a VSTOL fighter aircraft, perhaps founded on the cancelled Soviet Yak-141 supersonic fighter of the 1980s. The Yak-141 famously gave its vertical lift system to the F-35B before expiring, and the F-35B is currently the only vertical and/or short take-off and landing (VSTOL) fighter in production anywhere in the world.