On a serious note, this aircraft looks a bit like something from modern stealth concepts with... way too much 80's style polygon shapes thrown in. They need a better way to run those simulations on Maxwell's equations!
I think maybe you meant Navier-Stokes equations. Maxwell's equations are about electromagnetism.
The main design planform looks like it was borrowed from the X-36, albeit with the addition of canted vert stabs. If they plan to have the actual prototype flying with all that ugly geometry on there, then certainly they will be needed. Further images along in the gallery show an image of McDonnel Douglas' (then re-named by Boeing) Bird of Prey, which makes an interesting comparison to the wing design. The general planform of that wing does have merit in the broad sense, being able to trap a high pressure system beneath itself. For a short span, this is a sensible consideration, though the fact remains that such an aircraft will have a very high wing loading.
Other elements of the design are also questionable. The topside air intakes are certainly of poor design, though certainly that sort of design can be made viable. The main problem facing fighter aircraft using those types of inlets is the fact that high-alpha maneuvers, or sudden postitive pitch movements may create... almost a vacuum of sorts - or, more concisely put, the same problem that affects the upper surface of a wing in stall affects those inlets. Once laminar flow ceases (or nominal levels of turbulent flow) and separation ensues, the engines become starved for air. This of course happens at the time you need engine power the most!
The worst part is... I can see enough thought into the design to validate that this is indeed a real design. Unfortunately, it looks like it was designed by a team of sophmore or junior undergrads rather than a seasoned design team. There's just this ugly jumble of sharp edges and then conventional airfoils - no blending in what was certainly meant to be an aircraft that generates a lot of lift from the fuselage itself! I wonder if they got a copy of CATIA, crunched some numbers, and then all you got was this shoddily-made result just boolean'd together...
If it's actually made from structural materials and balanced right, and given a real powerplant, I'm sure the design would fly... a bit. However, as far as ability to function as a modern aircraft, I very much doubt the design's capability to do that.
The most revealing fact to me is the unbelievably thick wing. The chord ratio seems like it would be more at home on a pre-WW2 fighter aircraft built of wood and fabric. A wing that thick will produce a lot of lift (which it would surely need due to the rather small wing area) but it would produce so much drag that I doubt the plane would go much faster than maybe 300-400 km/h.
The anhedral winglets would cause some interesting lateral stability issues (roll), but I suppose they COULD enhance the directional stability (yaw), but only if they are placed far enough behind the centre of gravity. The problems about the intake placement have already been discussed and there is no way in hell those are going to work. They are, firstly, too small to provide meaningful airflow, and will choke if the aircraft does any meaningful amount of maneuvering. Additionally, on the bottom half of the fuselage, there are large areas which are essentially a flat face at rather high angle on wing, and that will produce a lot of drag; I suspect that is where someone originally wanted to put the air intakes on the design concept, but someone with more knowledge about "art" questioned such conventional placement and instead put the intakes above the wing plane instead.
But then, the last fighter project I know of them working on indigenously was this:
http://defensetech.org/2011/09/12/irans-f-5-knockoff-fighter-now-at-squadron-strength/
...In that sense, they've actually come a long way. As for final notes, the small sizes of the inlets and exhaust, no apparent weapons or radar, may suggest at most that this is intended to act as a mockup for a small/mid-scale technology demonstrator. A frontline fighter with a single engine that small just wouldn't be putting out enough thrust to survive in current air combat conditions.
There's no question that it's a mock-up. The question is why would they make a mock-up with so radically dysfunctional features, rather than make the mock-up look like an aircraft that could actually function?
There are basically two possibilities here: Either they really thought someone would fall for this, or it's a misdirection of some sort. Considering Iran's history of spectacularly stupid actions I can't discount the former, and for the latter I see no point as they would rather want to boast with REAL progress than hide it behind a faked failure...
