China's transport, tanker & heavy lift aircraft

kwaigonegin said:

that would of course be so assinine it's not even worth discussing!!!! I also like to correct my statement about front clamshell door.. I meant to say front visor type hinged loading doors that pivots over the cockpit. I think if the designers did not incorporate the ability to front load a Y-20 it would be HUGE design error.

Someone pls tell me the Y-20 have front cargo load doors because now that I see how the nose is fairly sharp and canted down as oppose to upwards stubby like C-5 or C-17 I'm getting worried!!!!

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Y-20 doesn't have the capability to load from the front. The aircraft is intended to be a C-17 equivalent, not an An-124 or C-5 equivalent.

Engineer said:

Y-20 doesn't have the capability to load from the front. The aircraft is intended to be a C-17 equivalent, not an An-124 or C-5 equivalent.

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that's a tad dissapointing to hear.. oh well.. do you think china intend on making a C-5 type heavy lifter in the future?

kwaigonegin said:

that's a tad dissapointing to hear.. oh well.. do you think china intend on making a C-5 type heavy lifter in the future?

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My guess would be yes but it won't fly for quite some years especially with current domestic engine issues unsolved.

kwaigonegin said:

that's not entirely true. While you are correct in saying that wing area is the primary variable to generate lift or more specifically the lift coefficient you also need the corresponding power to generate enough thrust and airspeed to maintain the load otherwise the big fat plane will never take off or fly properly.

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actually the lift force is proportional to wing area but it is the square of the air speed.
here is the eqaution,
Lift Force = 0.5 p v^2 A C
p is air density
v is true airspeed
A is planform area
C is the lift coefficient at the desired angle of attack

so at the low speed the wing area is the primary factor but at the high speed the velocity really matters
that's why a cruise missile can fly with little lifting area. but a paper airplane also can fly at very low speed

Deino said:

Official logo ?!

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It is to commemorate the "first flight of Y-20, 2013", according to those chinese characters within/on the logo.

jobjed said:

I always thought that the 66 tons figure was for production Y-20's with Chinese engines. The prototype/s probably can't reach the 66 tons figure.

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I'm sure that one day, some day all of China's airplanes will use domestic engines. Is just that i'm not holding my breath waiting for it.

Gents..I see things got a little testy last night but now have calmed down.. let's keep it that way.. shall we? Thanks

bd popeye super moderator

Just as there are Y-8 aircraft with and without loading ramp, so there will be Y-20 with and without, aerial tankers, AWACS, e&. It makes sense to build the first prototype of Y-20, with the less powerful D-30 engines, as light as possible so without the loading ramp.

Engineer said:

J-10 and J-11 have a different shade of green than Y-20. I am fairly certain that shade of green on the Y-20 is metal because of where the green is used. If yellow is also metal, that would only leave white and gray as the composite.

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All aircraft aluminum parts are coated with Zinc Chromate to prevent oxidation or rust, ZC is a carcinogenic so one must be carefull when applying it. ZC also makes a nice primer for the outer coating as ZC adheres well to the surface being painted as well as allowing the paint to adhere well to it. Its primary purpose is to protect the aluminum, aluminum oxidizes quite quickly, but the whitish coating also protects against further corrosion. So all aluminum is alodined to acid etch it, zinc chromate over the alodine, and then surface coating over the zinc crhomate which also likely serves well as a primer for the graphite parts, since it adheres well and holds paint well! AFB

delft said:

Just as there are Y-8 aircraft with and without loading ramp, so there will be Y-20 with and without, aerial tankers, AWACS, e&. It makes sense to build the first prototype of Y-20, with the less powerful D-30 engines, as light as possible so without the loading ramp.

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I doubt so. It will be a usesless test flight if the real loading ramp is not there plus there are definitely no load onboard except skeleton crew with minimal fuel for test flight. It will be a total failure if the PT can't even handle such delicate fine load.