[10][11][12][13] The fighter initially does not feature the J-XX nomenclatures, as such names are reserved for programs launched and financed by the military, while the FC-31 was developed independently as a privately funded venture by SAC.

[1] The People's Liberation Army, particularly the PLA Navy, later took an interest in the FC-31 project, leading to the prototype being further developed with a catapult launch bar and folding wings, and the revised variant took flight on 29 October 2021.

[2] The land-based variant emerged in 2023[3][16] and was officially debuted ahead of the 2024 China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition, receiving the designation J-35A.

[14] In September 2011, Shenyang Aircraft Corporation presented the scale model of the FC-31, dubbed the "F-60" at an innovation competition held in Beijing.

[21][22] In June 2012, a partially assembled F-60 was photographed in a police-escorted road transit through a national highway atop a truck and trailer, with its airframe heavily overwrapped by camouflage covering.

Several features were also noted, such as the more conventional airframe design with trapezoidal wings (instead of the canard-delta configuration of the Chengdu J-20) and twin nose wheels,[22][24] leading to the speculation that F-60 could become a carrier-borne aircraft in the future.

AVIC official told Aviation Week that the company was pushing the aircraft for export while negotiating with the Chinese government and the People's Liberation Army for further development.

[32][33] The aircraft was intended to serve as a competitor to the Lockheed Martin F-35 on the export market, especially for countries which cannot join the F-35 program or afford the American fighter.

[43][44] This airframe was eventually painted in low-visibility color with pennant number '31003', leading to speculations of an unseen static test prototype being the '31002'.

[48] In June 2020, the Chinese Aeronautical Establishment, the research wing of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), announced that a "new fighter" is under development and will make its maiden flight in 2021.

[22] New reports indicated that the new variant would feature a bigger radome, navalized functions, and different alignments of control surfaces to reduce the radar signature.

[54] In July 2021, a static FC-31 with opened weapons bay was displayed inside the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation Expo Park.

[2] The canopy was modified, blending in with the upper fuselage, allowing for more internal fuel load, aerodynamic advantages, and potential to mount sensors behind the cockpit.

This engine is fitted with pronounced, serrated exhaust nozzles, helping to reduce rearward radar and infrared signatures.

[62] In March 2023, the People's Liberation Army Navy released a recruitment video, teasing about the service's future carrier aircraft, which included a rough outline of the FC-31.

[65] On 8 December 2023, a mock-up of the J-35 was spotted on the deck of the Type 003 aircraft carrier, which was recently launched and preparing for sea trials at her homeport.

The test of the J-35 on Liaoning signified that the fighter is intended to operate not only on catapult-equipped Type 003 but also the older ski-jump (STOBAR) carriers.

[73][74] Photographs confirmed the differences with earlier naval J-35 on wing size, nose wheel, and vertical stabilizer design.

There were constant revisions between the prototypes and the later models supported by the Chinese military as different parties had divergent demands and requirements.

[80] The twinjet aircraft features a conventional configuration with a blended body and a chiseled nose section, followed by forward-swept intake ramp, diverterless supersonic inlet (DSI) bumps, trapezoidal wings with leading/trailing-edge flaps, all-moving tail-planes, and two canted swept-back vertical stabilizers (the first prototype has triangle stabilizers) with truncated rudders (full-length rudders on the naval J-35).

[2] The naval J-35 also features handholds inside the cockpit,[83] folded wings, and a recovery tailhook to operate on the aircraft carrier.

[2][73] On the land-based Shenyang J-35A, the wheel section is replaced by a single-wheel design,[16] and the variant also features a smaller wing area and different vertical stabilizers.

[17] Though two variants have separate missions and roles, the shared platform allows easier cross-service joint operations, according to the AVIC.

The airframe and its internal weapons bay, compartment doors, and embedded antennas are lined with sawtooth edges and covered with radar-absorbent coating materials, both structurally "baked in" and applied externally.

[44][52][60][84] The early prototype featured simple round engine nozzles, which were redesigned on the later models with serrated edges to reduce radar and infrared signatures.

[86] The radar advertised for the FC-31 prototype is the Nanjing Research Institute of Electronics Technology (NRIET) KLJ-7A, which is reportedly similar to performance of the AN/APG-81.

[60] The intended definitive powerplant for the J-35 is the Guizhou WS-19,[92] an engine capable of producing approximately 110–116 kN (25,000–26,000 lbf; 11,200–11,800 kgf) of thrust with a higher thrust-to-weight ratio.

[70] U.S. military and industry officials believe that once the FC-31 enters service, it will likely be more than a match for existing fourth-generation fighters like the F-15 Eagle, F-16 Fighting Falcon, and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.

[94][109] In 2013, Defense Acquisitions Chief Frank Kendall told a Senate hearing that stolen F-35 data helped U.S. rivals speed up their own fifth-generation fighter projects.

[110] In a 2015 article for the Diplomat, Franz-Stefan Gady said that documents leaked to Der Spiegel provided the first public confirmation of theft of top secret data of the Joint Strike Fighter program by Chinese hackers.