Originally Posted By: asiancivicmaniac
Seeing how they claimed to have made this jet, you'd think the 'danger' decal would be in Farsi.
And I'm no engineer, but those wings look way too small to keep that thing in the air even if it was real. I think they just made themselves the laughing stock of the internet. It looks like something a kid would think of.
I think Iranian pilots are trained in english and even largely use anglo aircraft. This is pretty typical, whether you're japanese or german; you're going to know english as far as aviation speech goes.
The wingloading looks high, but definitely no higher than an f-104 or even f-5. It's also a small craft, somewhere between the size of those two fighters; maybe 6 max 7 tons.
It does not look like a gi joe playtoy and was definitely designed to fly. The main wings are over the engines (the heaviest part of the aircraft) as well as the apparent center of mass. It has fairly large canards which also contribute to total lift. It even looks stable on the pitch axis, with the main wings stalling after the canards would.
I'm guessing they're using aluminum and may not be advanced enough with manufacturing to use much titanium. I don't see there being much room for a lot of armament; maybe a few small agm's or two aa's, inside, depending on whether it is fitted to defensive or offensive role. It looks like it could strap some conformal droptanks on the belly between the landing gears. In the latter role, it could be a real menace if used simultaneously with cruise missile and drone attack.
It does seem like a prototype, or 1st generation of this design with room for improvements (has a smaller engine, and possibly no stealth materials yet other than black paint). There is a neat collection of photos here:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iran/qaher-313-pics.htm
