VIDEO: China's J-15 goes viral, but J-18 steals the show

China's J-15 has become a star of the aviation paparazzi in the last few days, with a couple of new-ish photos leaking onto the blogosphere. There's also a new round of rampant speculation about the status of the J-18 Snowy Owl. Some have even suggested that it's China's short takeoff and vertical landing fighter, and that it may have even achieved first flight. So far, there's nothing to back that up. The "photo" from CCTV purportedly showing the Snowy Owl is most likely a fake. In the meantime, the Chinese blogosphere has predictably gone ga-ga over the J-15, the Chinese navy's first carrier-borne fighter. The question is whether the J-15 is a straightforward rip-off of a Sukhoi Su-33 imported from Ukraine, or an indigenously-modified J-11 (nee, Su-30), or, perhaps, some combination. The video was posted today on 56.com, one of China's versions of YouTube. It shows old footage of the J-15 in flight, which is combined with new and old photos of the aircraft.