sferrin wrote:Presumably the production powerplant would be the WS-13E (22,450lbs). That's more thrust and better aerodynamics than the F-35 (certainly a better fineness ratio).
1) Are you saying china is upgrading RD-33 to beat F414 (performance-wise)? Making that small engine as powerful as F100? If that is true, I could say China's engine technology is on par with, or probably has exceed US.
2) It's not an easy task to assume "A has better aerodynamics than B" without wind tunnel or CFD result.
Due to higher wing sweep, it is unlikely that FC-31 could become as efficient as F-35 at subsonic. Due to smaller H-stab, it may not have F-35 level pitch authority and unable to conduct drift turns/tight loops.
You can not judge a plane's "fineness" by its "thinness". There are lots of counter-examples. A seemingly "thin" or "slim" aircraft (such as all Gen.3 jets) may have very poor aerodynamic efficiency, while a seemingly stubby plane, such as propeller fighters from WW2 era, may have decent aerodynamic efficiency.