China's transport, tanker & heavy lift aircraft

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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Huh? The prototype has rear door and loading ramp.

I guess he's going to have to update his work.

AssassinsMace said:

I guess he's going to have to update his work.

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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.

Lion said:

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.

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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.

C-919 make better AWACS platform than a cargo aircraft..

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.

hardware said:

C-919 make better AWACS platform than a cargo aircraft..

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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

Someone got loose with the MS paint and put a nice paint job on the Y-20 aircraft..Very nice indeed!

Stunning job! Looks very real

hardware said:

C-919 make better AWACS platform than a cargo aircraft..

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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.