J-50 designers reveal leapfrog tech for China’s next-gen stealth fighters

China’s next-generation combat aircraft will be able to fly by themselves if a pilot loses consciousness, navigate without satellite signals and operate in self-reorganising large drone formations.That is the plan laid out by researchers from the Shenyang Aircraft Design & Research Institute, a top Chinese military aircraft design organisation, in a paper last month.The institute is associated with the development of the Chinese next-generation aircraft commonly referred to as the J-50, which first appeared in flight-test imagery in December 2024, although the paper does not mention the J-50 by name or confirm that the aircraft will incorporate any of the described technologies.