DF-104 - Dong Feng / East Wind fighter

The first indigenous Dong Feng [East Wind] series fighter was the DF-104. The DF-104 seems to have been developed between the DF-103 MiG-19PF derivative and DF-105 MiG-19 derivates. Little is known of this project, which remained a "paper plane". It was designed by the Shenyang Aircraft Factory (not the Shenyang-based 601 Aircraft Design Institute) with Soviet help, though it was not as a copy of a Soviet design. The DF-104 was designed to be capable of Mach 1.4, using design elements of the latest fighters, and it is assumed that it was to be powered by two up-rated WP-6 turbojet engines, which was used on the J-6 and Q-5.

Development of the DF-104 started towards the end of 1957 or early 1958. This design was suggested when the Aviation Industry Control Section insisted early in 1958 on much higher performance especially for a top speed of Mach 1.8 at a service ceiling of 20.000 m. Dongfeng 104 was a lightweight front-line fighter design. It used a delta wing layout, with air intake on both sides, and the pilot has good vision. The designed maximum speed is about Mach 1.4, the ceiling is 17000 meters, the climb rate is greater than 70 meters per second, the range is 1000 kilometers, and the endurance time is 1 hour and 20 minutes. The power unit of the aircraft was a Soviet-made RD-9B turbojet engine, which can be used all day.

The overall design and layout of the delta wing and air intake on both sides belonged to the more advanced wing aerodynamic scheme at the time, and the Dongfeng 104 aircraft designed a lot of honeycomb components on the fuselage structure, so the Dongfeng 104 aircraft weighed less than 4,000 kg. The maximum take-off weight is only 5,000 kg. In the 1950s, the design boldly used both sides of the air intake, the nose space for the radar, and the swept wing with a large angle of attack were all very advanced designs.

The design of the DF-104 started in 1958, and between May and June 1958, the design team started to inquire into improving the East Wind 104 design speeds. During the "Great Leap Forward" wave, design requirements were repeatedly raised. Some form of prototype construction had begun in May 1959, but only one month later the concept needed some significant modifications. Later, Shenyang Aircraft Factory proposed the Dongfeng 107 fighter, and the progress of the Dongfeng 104 fighter project was shelved due to "not advanced enough."