Before we get started, there are two low part version available in the description.

The Chengdu TX-01 Pegasus is a prototype 6.5th gen air dominance fighter built in China for the Chinese air force. It is based on the F-21S Rhino Shell

In 2035, the war over Taiwan was at its boiling point, a conflict that had spilled far beyond the strait. Skies above the island were a constant haze of smoke, the distant rumble of naval warfare echoed like thunder and the war in the sky was becoming a pitiful situation for China.

The PRC's flagship fighters at the time were becoming obsolete in the face of the more modern 6th generation fighters that dominated the sky from beyond visual range. While China did already have a 6th generation fighter aircraft being the J-50, it was more fit for multirole missions than anything else. This prompted the PRC to start development of their new air dominance fighter.

This aircraft was to be the most advanced aircraft in the world, along with the normal features of modern airplanes such as, stealth shaping, thrust vectoring, radar blockers, data fusion etc, it was to have more... Alien features on it, such as, retractable canards, mounted energy weapons and neuro integration allowing for a complete fusion between pilot and plane. It also sported more unconventional quirks like the forward swept wings, flaps on the engine nacelles and even the canards were swept forward. It wasn't to fly all on it's own though, the original plan was to pair this plane with smaller drones that could carry it's BVR armament for it, jam radar, carry bombs or just act as decoys. With data fusion the TX-01 could target with one drone, jam the target's radar with a second and fire with another all while not being anywhere close to the battle field.

So what happened?

The war over Taiwan was long and drawn out, coupled with the mismanagement of logistics, unethical tariff rates and lack of indigenous production, China's economy was hanging on for dear life. The final blow came in the form of her own people, being disgusted by the current situation, went on a country wide riot and after the banking system collapsed (rumoured to be caused by indigenous hackers), the entire economy followed suit.

The Taiwanese war was effectively lost and China had to withdraw inorder to face the current crisis at home, this meant any ongoing military projects had to be either put on hold or scrapped all together. As it stands now, we don't know if the TX-01 is the former or the latter but we do know they built a prototype before everything went to hell.

The prototype was more a proof of concept and while it was already very impressive, it lacked half the features that was promised in the production version. And as it stands now, we might never see that version.

The Chengdu TX-01 Pegasus

The prince that never became a king.

-PID FBW: Super stable and handles wonderfully at low speeds despite being unstable.
There are three modes:

•Standard AOA - The default.
•Relaxed AOA - Can hit higher AOA for stuff like dogfighting or just more agility.
•Limiter Off - Crazy PSM stuff.
•Also has autotrim, though, it can be a lil touchy at times.

-Dynamic FBW: The handling profile changes depending on what the pilot is trying to do. That's the idea anyway, but for now the prototype can:

•Relax the AOA limiter once the target is within 5 miles of the aircraft.
•Assist in take-off

-Limiters: Yes limiters, you can't just do anything here

•The canopy doesn't open when in the air or taking off.
•Weapon's bay and flare bay don't open until there's a selected target.
•Stealth mode limits anything that might increase radar return, and speaking off.

-StealthMode: Like I said before, it lowers radar cross section by limiting a lot of the features on the plane.

•No more afterburner, but you can supercruise.
•Thrust vector controls are turned off
•Landing gears remain closed until the plane is under a certain altitude and speed.
•The canards fold in and speaking of those too.

-Folding Canards: Straight outta Ace combat! I was initially gonna keep the rear flaps and thrust vectoring as the main way to pitch, but I wanted some redundancy but I also didn't want to harm the RCS, so this was like the best of both worlds. Comes out when flying but folds back in when in stealth mode.

-Rear Flaps: So I wanted to get rid of the rudders, but since it would be using 2D thrust vectoring, I didn't have the option of Yaw control through thrust vectoring, well other than thrust differential and that winglet thing other 6th gens do. But I wanted to stand out a little and build something unconventional, so I came up with this solution which worked surprisingly well tbh. That along with thrust differential means that you don't have to worry about that. They also pitch and triple as airbrakes!

-Radar Jammer: Sigh, this is a more experimental feature, but in a nutshell, this renders you nearly immune to missiles, but at the heavy cost of agility and stability. I recommend only using this in a BVR fight.

-The cockpit: Yeah so as you've probably noticed by now the glass canopy looks a bit different and that's because it's not made of glass, it's all part of the fuselage (according to the lore). In universe, it's actually opaque but it when the pilot connects to the neuro interface of the plane, it uses the cameras all around the jet and sends the information directly to the pilot's brain and after some processing, it allows the pilot to see through the canopy, assuming they want to look from a pilots point of view. I used opaque glass to get this effect so it can look a lil weird once the canopy is open.
•Cockpit is fully VR capable.
•There's a F-35 like HUD in it that can be turned off and on, check the red button on the upper left side of the main screen.

Instructions in-game

Yes, I know... "Why does a supposed Chinese fighter have American weapons?" Well that's what I had lying around okay? Your more than welcome to add yours, although not in the internal bay, unless you know what your doing of course.

Crew: 1
Empty weight: 14,000 kg (30,864lbs)
weight, 28,856kg (57,002lbs) at full load
Max takeoff weight: 33,620 kg (74,119lbs)
Fuel capacity: 9,970 kg (22,000 lb)
Powerplant: 2 × WS - 15 afterburning turbofan.

Maximum speed": Mach 2.5, 3,062 km/h (1,650 kn; 1,900 mph) at high altitude
Mach 1.4, 1,710 km/h (920 kn; 1,063 mph) at sea level
*Supercruise: Mach 1.7, 2,100 km/h (1,130 kn; 1,305 mph) supercruise at high altitude
Range: 4,200 km (2,610 mi, 2,270 nmi) subsonic
1,800 km (1,120 mi; 970 nmi) supersonic
Combat range: 1,400 km (870 mi, 755 nmi)
Ferry range: 5,200 km (3,230 mi, 2,800 nmi) with 2 outboard fuel tanks
Service ceiling: 26,000 m (85,300 ft)
g limits: +11.0
This performance is taken from the lore, in-game performance will vary due to SP limitations

-This is only a prototype because I didn't have enough time to do everything I had planned.
•Working MFDs
•Auto Ejection
•Landing assist
•Immersive UI
•Bespoke cockpit
•A lot of details
•A better FBW system than what it has now
•Better nozzle mechanics
•EOTS
•A gun
Etc... Maybe if the host does a challenge continuation on this same topic, I might do a production version.
-Sexiest plane I've made in my opinion
-Whilst it is quite stable, I recommend not fully turning of the engines while doing crazy PSM stuff
-The Jammer is highly unstable, proceed with caution
-The lore part was fictional by the way, just informing the political paraders in the back
-And before anyone says it, yes it is essential a Falken from Temu.

Other versions

For a mobile friendly version click here for a lower part version with a VR cockpit and here if you don't care about the cockpit.

Gallery

Guyfolk while his code has been heavily modified, it's still his. And the front landing gear.

RestlessGalaxies Challenge host, wouldn't have built this in the first place if not for his challenge. And also for his screenshots.

Dissent3R (Noble) For more screenshots. And flight testing.

A lot of the cockpit is out sourced so if you see something in there that's yours, just holler at me.