The basic survivability and performance contradictions that become evident as soon as the concept is considered an aircraft rather than a display piece are reason enough to suggest that the White Emperor is by no means a real design, analyst Reuben Johnson wrote.
The combination of an imposing figure and the physics behind the operation of a real combat aircraft is why the emergence of an entire mock-up of the “White Emperor” (Baidi) at the 2024 Zhuhai Air Show dominated the news coverage. AVIC placed the Baidi within the “project Nantianmen,” a future-oriented aerospace speculation which combines both the hypothetical “space-air” activity and buzzword-ready aids like AI, directed-energy system, and hypersonic missiles. The outcome was a sixth-generation fighter, rendered in concept-art board, that is why it went so viral.
Aesthetically, the Baidi is a tail-less, diamond-shaped design structure that carries with it those types of hard edges and any clean planform alignment that are usually indicative of low-observable motivation. Imagery was used to emphasize a dark, multi-layered canopy, an internal arms volume offered as exceptionally long a design that focused upon the provision of bigger stores, such as hypersonic guns. It is an eye-catching method of conveying the message in the abstract, “stealth plus reach,” and even more so when combined with assertions of functioning in the near space. That wrapping is as important as the airplane: a fantasy of smooth flight into the air until it is space itself, and the sensing, intercepting, hitting all become the same bundle of abilities.
However, the engineering read is where the story is different. Johnson attacks radar cross-section realities head-on and claims that the control surfaces of the mock-up would become significant reflectors themselves, which cannot be the point of the stealth pitch that the shape suggests. Another issue he points out is the range-and-lift problem: wings that seem too small to carry out the mission would be expected to lift that much. These are not little details; they are the sort of underlying tradeoffs that lead to actual sixth-generation design effort -propulsion integration, thermal management, internal volume, and signature control over many bands all of which cannot be verified on a show-floor mock-up.
Near-space and “space-air” talk have also crashed into another, more mundane thread: that China has shown an interest in utilizing space to make delivery profiles. In 2021, a test called a hypersonic glide vehicle that launched into low-orbit space stimulated more discussion on fractional orbital approaches. The technical aspect of it is not that a fighter turns into an orbital vehicle, it is that the term “from space” is slowly becoming a part of the vocabulary of the modern strike trajectories. According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, orbital-style delivery combined with a glider maneuvering vehicle can generate paths hard to follow relative to standard ballistical paths. The messaging by the Baidi will become clear in that context despite the fact that the planes themselves are yet to be proven.
In the meantime, real, observable development in China is still based on fielded and testable platforms. The J-20 is in operation and the J-35A has been publicly demonstrated and other enhanced versions are discussed with more or less evidentiary backing. It is against that backdrop that the Baidi is less of a prototype and more of a branding exercise: a singular object that is supposed to condense “stealth, hypersonics and near space” into a single shape that can be shared in an instant.
Whether the White Emperor is something “real” is not the useful question to ask the engineers and serious observers but what is the work that the concept does. It generalizes an ambition stack, low observability, internal carriage, high-speed weapons, near-space operations, although more verifiable programs are being developed by China on parallel.
