The X-2 is a single-seat, twin-engine, fifth-generation fighter aircraft developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan and the Japanese Ministry of Defense Technical Research and Development Institute, TRDI. The company built just one of the X-2, an experimental, proof-of-concept prototype. It took its maiden flight on April 22, 2016 and the program remains in development.
The X-2 evolved in the early 2000s out of the Japanese Military’s desire to upgrade its air capability from its fourth-generation platforms including the F-15 and the F-16. With an outlook to innovate an advanced fighter that was focused on air superiority and interdiction, the Japanese Ministry of Defense Technical Research and Development Institute, TRDI, began the Advanced Technology Demonstrator-X, or ATD-X, program. The ATD-X initiative sought to create a low observable (“stealth”), supersonic, highly maneuverable fighter—Japan’s first fifth-generation military aircraft.
After evaluating a series of scale model design concepts, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries embarked on a multi-year project to build a prototype X-2. The result, colloquially termed “Shinshin” (“Spirit” in Japanese), is one of the most promising fifth-generation demonstrators ever produced. Featuring a design with a low radar cross section, the aircraft comprises a spectrum of cutting-edge innovations. These include robust powerplants with exhaust paddles that enable both high maneuverability and supercruise, fiber optic “fly-by-optics” flight controls that are both undetectable to technical intelligence gathering platforms and impervious to electronic warfare capabilities, advanced radar, and self-repairing flight systems. The X-2 has completed dozens of successful flight tests and Mitsubishi and the Japanese government continue to refine and improve the aircraft and its myriad systems.
The X-2 measures 46 feet, 6 inches in length, stands 14 feet, 10 inches tall, and has a wingspan of 29 feet, 10 inches. It features a cropped delta main wing and an empennage with two outward-canted vertical stabilizers and flying horizontal stabilizers. It is powered by two IHI XF5-1 afterburning turbofan engines that each deliver up to 11,000 pounds of thrust with full afterburner. The aircraft has a range of 1,800 miles, it can supercruise at Mach 1.3, and it has a top speed of Mach 2.25.
