The Inside Story of the Resemblance between the Cover of the 1979 Popular Science and the J-10

Hahahaha, netizens sure have good eyesight. They immediately noticed this strange phenomenon: nearly 30 years ago on the cover of a magazine, there appeared a model that closely resembled the domestically produced J-10 fighter jet which was just released. What's going on here?

After specifically asking our veteran editor, we learned that the aero-model in the photo indeed was based on our J-10! Actually, this was a photo of a reader who won an award at an aero-model competition and his winning piece. The child in the photo had parents involved in the design work of military aircraft. Somehow, the child probably had the chance to see some of the aircraft design drafts and applied this shape to his competition entry. As a result, after this award-winning photo was published, the National Security Agency immediately found our magazine and warned us that the photo might disclose state secrets. However, the magazine had already been distributed, and the cover couldn't be changed anymore. From then on, our editorial work had to become more cautious.

So, although the official development of the J-10 began in the 80s, the preliminary design work had already started in the late 70s. Today, when we re-post this photo, it certainly no longer has any suspicion of leaking state secrets, hehehe...