Huh? The prototype has rear door and loading ramp.
China's transport, tanker & heavy lift aircraft
- Thread starter Totoro
- Start date
Huh? The prototype has rear door and loading ramp.
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
I guess he's going to have to update his work.
I guess he's going to have to update his work.
I guess once Y-20 enter service. PLAAF first thing to do is convert remaning few IL-76 to AWACS. Despite its older airframe, it will still be the most practical, safest and fastest way for PLAAF to build up a fleet of big powerful AWACS.
Probably the next generation PLAAF AWACS will use Y-20 platform.
MwRYum
Major
It'd depend on how much airframe hours those Il-76 still has by then. The better candidate for AWACS would be C919, but that'd depend a lot on can it be manufactured with 100% Chinese components yet deliver the required payload+endurance performance.
plawolf
Lieutenant General
If the PLAAF were to covert their existing Il76s into anything, it would more likely be tankers, because the PLAAF should be able to make do with their existing AWACS fleet until a Y20 or C919 based one becomes available, and they can always build as many balance beams as they want. However, I think it is far more likely that they will keep them as heavy strategic transports because it's not like the PLAAF has a glut of those ATM, and such transports have already proven their worth during the Libyan evac.
asif iqbal
Lieutenant General
It probably would but how much weight and equopment can C919 hold, the Y-20 can lift all the necessary equipment to do real time analysis without the need to transfer all the information to the ground station
The RAF Sentinal can't for example make decision while flying it has to download all the data to ground control who then process and then a decision is made
On the other hand the E3 Sentry is a flying command and communication centre which has not need to rely on a ground station hence making decision making easier and faster fully independently
asif iqbal
Lieutenant General
Stunning job! Looks very real
MwRYum
Major
Logical choice but it'd all boiled down to whether C919 could indeed fulfill its design goal of an A320/Boeing 737 replacement, with 100% made-in-China components. Indeed, if that can be fulfilled, tankers and AWACS/AEW&C variants would better be derived from C919 and leave Y-20 purely serve as heavy lifters.