Manufacturing

Chinese battery and automobile producer BYD Co. is scrambling to make a last-minute design change to its all-electric battery car and is now aiming to make the car available to private buyers in California and possibly a few other "key U.S. states" by 2012 after test marketing the car in Southern California during the second half of this year, said company Chairman and founder Wang Chuanfu in an interview.

The redesign of the car—called the e6—even before it is launched in the U.S. comes as a result of BYD's decision to improve the car's rear seating area and means the U.S. test marketing and launch of the electric car would be delayed, in the end, by about a year.

The company was aiming to begin the test marketing in California during the second half of last year. The e6 debuted in China last March as taxis in Shenzhen.

Though BYD is more known for its ambition in electric cars, the home-grown Chinese company sells mostly gasoline-fueled vehicles in China and is one of that country's top auto brands, with sales of more than 500,000 vehicles last year.

When China announced that one of its government companies had figured out how to reprocess spent uranium, it was with no small amount of fanfare.

The development was billed as a breakthrough that could save the nation the cost of importing uranium (known as yellowcake in its semi-processed form) and allow it to sidestep troublesome storage of radioactive waste material. “With the new technology, China’s existing detected uranium resources can be used for 3,000 years,” state-run China Central Television gushed on Monday when it delivered the news of the claimed breakthrough by China National Nuclear Corp. “Nuclear fuel feat to solve uranium shortage,” read a front page headline in the next day’s China Daily.

Foreign analysts were less excited. And the market seemed positively unconvinced: Uranium prices moved higher, not lower as would be expected if the largest future consumer had rid itself of the need to buy fresh supplies.

Actually, China National Nuclear made clear in a brief announcement (in Chinese), dated Dec. 22 and posted to its website, that the reprocessing claim is based on a very small pilot project, an experiment.

On 29 December 2010, the right estimable China Defense Blog published the first no-kidding photographs of the long rumored J-XX Chinese stealth fighter. Unambiguous confirmation of the existence of this program will require re-evaluation of aircraft modernization efforts in a number of countried, including Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and the United States. Chinese combat aviation has made remarkable strides in recent years, moving from a collection of obsolete aircraft that would have provided a target-rich environment to potential adversaries. Today China flies hundreds of first rate aircraft, and even flies more Sukhoi Flankers [the aircraft the American F-22 was designed to counter] than does Russia. The Chinese stealth fighter has arrived right on schedule. Chinese military technology is generally rated about two decades behind that of the United States. while the advent of a Chinese counterpart to the F-22 fighter might be disconcerting, the first flight of the prototype American F-22 stealth fighter came on September 29, 1990.

There is general agreement in the open literature that China is working on some type of stealthy fighter attack aircraft, and that this program has been underway since the turn of the century. There is very little agreement beyond these basic points. Available treatments of this subject in print and online seem to represent little more than a confusing jumble of informed speculation, wild guesstimates, and active disinformation. The Chinse government is under no obligation to set the record straight, and indeed has every incentive to add to the general confusion.

General characteristics

Crew: 1 (pilot)
Length: 67 ft 5 in (20.60 m)
Wingspan: 43 ft 7 in (13.30 m)
Height: 13 ft 11 in (4.30 m)
Wing area: 900 ft² (88 m²)
Empty weight: 29,000 lb (14,970 kg)
Loaded weight: 51,320 lb (23,327 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 62,000 lb (29,000 kg)
Powerplant: 2× WS-15 engines 35,000 lbf (156 kN) each (Prototype with Saturn 117S engines - 117S is an upgrade of AL-31F )

Performance

Maximum speed: Mach 2.2+ (1,650+ mph, 2,655+ km/h) at altitude
Cruise speed: Mach 1.6 (1,060 mph, 1,706 km/h) supercruise at altitude
Range: over 2,790 mi (over 4,500 km)
Combat radius: 865–920 mi (750–800 nmi, 1,380–1480 km)
Service ceiling: 65,000 ft (19,800 m)
Wing loading: 54 lb/ft² (265 kg/m²)
Thrust/weight: 1.36

Armament

None as tested but provisions made for

None on prototype

Guns: 1× 20 mm in wing root
Air to air missile:
6×
2×
Air to ground loadout:
2×
2×
2× 1,000 lb (450 kg) Bombs
8× 250 lb (110 kg) Small Bombs

Hardpoints: 4× under-wing pylon stations can be fitted to carry 600 tanks or weapons, each with a capacity of 5,000Ib(2,800 kg).

Avionics

AESA Radar built by CAC & based on Russian Tikhomirov NIIP N035 Irbis-E.

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Great Wall Hover M3 will roll off line in the 1^st season of 2011 as Greatwall's first new model of 2011.

Great Wall Hover M3 powered by a 1.5L aluminum VVT engine - GW4G. Its maximum power is 77KW/6000rpm, maximum torque =138Nm/4200rpm. Full Time 4WD and 6-gear CVT transmission empower more driving enjoyments.

Great Wall Hover H6 and C50 will follow M3's step to be sold in the 2^nd season of 2011.