China's transport, tanker & heavy lift aircraft
- Thread starter Totoro
- Start date
Some more noise on the heavy transport. Basically:
“By the time of the crewed Moon landing, China’s domestically produced large airplane should be able to operate the flight.”
“Looks like images of the heavy transport are being kept very tightly under wraps.”
“Where is it? There isn’t any.
”
"If it’s going to enter service in 2029 to 2030, then it should already be flying by now.”
"It can still make it. Flight testing now isn’t like it used to be."
"But that’s kind of pushing it, isn’t it? The Y-20 took three and a half years from first flight to entering service. If the moon landing is supposed to happen at the end of 2029, then this aircraft would need to enter service by mid-2029 at the latest for it to still be usable, and that’s only 3 years away now.”
"Hope it can make it in time."
“By the time of the crewed Moon landing, China’s domestically produced large airplane should be able to operate the flight.”
“Looks like images of the heavy transport are being kept very tightly under wraps.”
“Where is it? There isn’t any.
”"If it’s going to enter service in 2029 to 2030, then it should already be flying by now.”
"It can still make it. Flight testing now isn’t like it used to be."
"But that’s kind of pushing it, isn’t it? The Y-20 took three and a half years from first flight to entering service. If the moon landing is supposed to happen at the end of 2029, then this aircraft would need to enter service by mid-2029 at the latest for it to still be usable, and that’s only 3 years away now.”
"Hope it can make it in time."
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Damn.. this is insane speed considering the complexity of this type of aircraft. and if this is true information looks like XAC already assembled the first prototype.Some more noise on the heavy transport. Basically:
“By the time of the crewed Moon landing, China’s domestically produced large airplane should be able to operate the flight.”
“Looks like images of the heavy transport are being kept very tightly under wraps.”
“Where is it? There isn’t any.
"If it’s going to enter service in 2029 to 2030, then it should already be flying by now.”
"It can still make it. Flight testing now isn’t like it used to be."
"But that’s kind of pushing it, isn’t it? The Y-20 took three and a half years from first flight to entering service. If the moon landing is supposed to happen at the end of 2029, then this aircraft would need to enter service by mid-2029 at the latest for it to still be usable, and that’s only 3 years away now.”
"Hope it can make it in time."
View attachment 173296
also WS-35 tender was definitely related to this project.
Damn.. this is insane speed considering the complexity of this type of aircraft. and if this is true information looks like XAC already assembled the first prototype.
I think it's best to just treat the above as noise to know for now and not read too much into it.
Damn.. this is insane speed considering the complexity of this type of aircraft. and if this is true information looks like XAC already assembled the first prototype.
Don't be so excitable lol
Treat things with a bit more skepticism until we get more overwhelming proof.
For one, the powerplant question for this aircraft remains unclear in terms of readiness and timeline, if such an aircraft is going to emerge in the few years.
Allegedly (a rumour posted by 鼎盛大彪) some sort of ground attack variant...? “攻运-9”?
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Those do look like wing pylons, and the second picture looks like possibly a quad rack of some sort of ATGM (would be appropriately sized for a KD-10 sized weapon).
The bulbous nose, and ventral protrusions could be for various sensors and mounts for special mission purposes as well as self defense (maybe DIRCM?). On the port side of the aircraft fuselage there doesn't seem to be any unusual mounts, but the first picture does pixellate the starboard side, which could conceal anything (or nothing)... but a side mounted cannon system is not out of the question.
OTOH it could also be another ELINT/SIGINT/EW platform, and the weapons pylons might just be a modular antennae/pod mounting system and the quad rack could just be an oddly shaped antennae.
It would certainly be amusing if it were some sort of AC-130J equivalent (given how frequently in the 2000s the idea of a Y-8 gunship variant was floated by defense fans who had recently watched Transformers), and if so would have interesting implications for the sort of more irregular/lower intensity missions that the PLA might be interested in being equipped for. But that is all dependent on what systems this thing is actually equipped with, of course.
鼎盛大彪 says "primarily carrying munitions (drones), with gunfire as a secondary role" (though not necessarily a gun as big as 105mm)
Some are speculating that this is a demonstrator for future Y-15s
Some are speculating that this is a demonstrator for future Y-15s