Since the aircraft's serial number (36011) begins with '36,' following the People's Liberation Army Air Force convention, this model was presumably designated as J-36, but further information is limited.
[5] Intelligence and rumors indicated the Chinese designs would use tailless flying wing or flying arrowhead configuration that can provide greater broadband stealth characteristics compared to the previous generation of fighters, new propulsion technologies, improved sensors allowing the aircraft to operate alongside unmanned teaming aircraft or unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), etc.
[6] In September 2022, United States Air Force (USAF) General Mark D. Kelly, head of the Air Combat Command (ACC) suggested China was on track with the aforementioned characteristics for its six-generation fighter program, and he believed the Chinese design uses a 'system of systems' approach like the United States, which allows for "exponential" reductions in stealth signature and improvements in processing power and sensing.
[7][8] In February 2023, Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) shared its six-generation fighter aircraft concept on social media.
The fighter is large in size, with a thin and wide nose area and leading-edge extension (LRX) chine lines extending to the wing section.
[24] Behind the nose radome are the canopy, electro-optical windows, possible side-looking airborne radar (SLAR) arrays, dual-wheel nose landing gear, two under-wing caret inlets, one dorsal intake with diverterless supersonic inlet, double delta wings with five trailing edge control surfaces on each wing (including two split flap rudders at outboard wing edges), multiple ventral weapons bays, two sets of tandem-wheel aft landing gear, no vertical stabilizer, and trijet engine bays with segmented exhaust articulation surfaces.
It was estimated three modified WS-10 or WS-15 variants were mounted, while the possible installation of propulsion systems with other working regimes, such as ramjet and variable cycle engine, remain speculative.