As is my wont, I will ask a rhetorical question which may have no clear answer other than the one I am trying to suggest..
We insist time and again that technology is acquired faster by copying. It is very difficult to claim that this assertion is not true. To an extent it really is true.
Let me start with jet engines. Chinese jet engines look just as good as any made by the top companies. It is likely that some have been copied part by part. But unlike handbags and lipstick, jet engines are graded by their function - their power and reliability and fuel efficiency. And that is where Chinese engines have fallen short. It is not as if they have not had a chance to study and copy engines - and it is not as though engine data could not have been stolen. The point is that one engine looks much like another but one may not work as well as the other. This we all know and accept as facts based on available information.
But what about stealth tech. The earliest attempts at stealth tech development by the US was in the 1950s. But the F-117 came in 1983 and the F-22 in 1997. Just 14 years after 1997 - the Chinese produced an aircraft that appeared to have all the stealth features of the F-117 and F-22. By 2011 we all knew what a "stealthy aircraft" should look like. It should have radar absorbent skin, be black in colour, have leading and trailing edges in parallel lines, should have engine face hidden, should have a radar signal breaking zig-zag pattern on hatches and doors, should have engine exhaust shielded, should have no uneven bumps, rivets etc. We knew it. So did China. China produced something that looked like what we knew stealth was supposed to look like and now we all accept that China has stealthy "5th generation" aircraft and has caught up with the US.
Now riddle me this. What is it about stealth technology that makes something that appears stealthy in China as good as the best in the world, while Chinese jet engines, that look as good as the best do not work so well?
I hear a lot of stories "Oh the Chinese stole it" . OK. But why didn't they steal engine tech that was available to them as ready-made engines and has been around for longer?
I feel I am now entering territory where it is necessary to post my usual disclaimer lest I have my mouth smashed in by people who demand that I must respect the Chinese. Please click on link below if you feel inclined or else move on..
China Disclaimer
It is possible that Chinese stealth designs have copied the appearances of the best stealth designs of the world in a manner that convinces people who can recognize stealth by visual appearance but not by radar, IR or acoustic signature. Stealth is only partly about shape - a lot of it is skin care and avoidance of bumps and scratches and the actual materials used. The shape is easily copied, but is stealth so easily copied? If stealth tech is copied so easily why was engine tech not copied so easily?