China's transport, tanker & heavy lift aircraft

Gorthaur said:

Engineer: I know that and I understand that. Even so I am bit disappointed about the lack of will to excel the earlier formulas. Of course it would have been a tremendous gamble and going to traditional way is the easy way. Anyhow, the engine meant to Y-20 is still a long long way to emerge. Why not to play a little poker game with the airframe? Why not to try something new? This aircraft is going to be around at least next 30 years. Why do it like they did it in the seventies?

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Lion said:

There is something called upgrade. I do not expect the same old Y-20 from now to 30 years later.
Look at C-130 J.

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Air Force Brat said:

Lion, my Dad transitioned out of the C-119, into the C-130A over 50 years ago, if you recall the A had the radar antennae under the nose, prior to receiving the familiar radome that we all know and love, and the A also had three bladed props, but she was a hotrod, the lead of the four horsemen knew they were done when he flew the B model, even with four bladed props, she was heavier and the hydraulics had turned the sweet A model into a flying pickup truck. My Dad was at Pope with the Horsemen, then we went of Okinawa, and back to Sewart AFB in Tennessee. I met a guy at our little church a couple of weeks ago whose dad was a jet jockey at Kadena, my Dad flew the 130 out of Naha, we may well have been there at the same time, it was unusual for the AFB to meet a fellow AFB whose paths had crossed before. You are exactly right about the Y-20, transports tend to grow with the times, and the J is quite an airplane, but if my Dad was still here I am confident that I could throw him into the left seat and he would go to work. A small airport had a fly-in that we attended and my Dad was to give rides, there was an instructor, who my Dad asked to take off and climb to 500' and to keep his banks in turns to 10 degrees or so and he thought he could stay with him, it had prolly been 30 years since the last USAF formation flying, the civilian instructor took off and at 150' rolled into a 50-60 degree bank, by that time the old man was in the pocket, he made it look so easy, and we were "tucked in", I think the civilian guy was real surprised, we were close, my mouth was hangin open, I should have been snappin pix but I didn't want to miss anything, we flew between the other airplane and below the top of the grain elevator in town, he didn't miss a beat. The J-20 will give the PLAAF a real airlift capability far beyond what they have previously known, and you are right it will grow up just like the 130. Brat

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Chinese scientists and technicians will soon complete an indigenous, large aircraft engine that can equip the Y-20, the country's first domestically developed strategic airlifter, Chinese media quoted a military expert as saying on Sunday.

Qiao Liang, a professor at the Air Force Command Institute of the People's Liberation Army, told Science Times that the prototype of the Y-20, which conducted its first test flight on Jan 26, is currently equipped with four Russian D-30 turbofan engines, and the development of an indigenous engine is "approaching success".

After being installed with the domestically developed engine, the payload of the Y-20 will increase by around 10 metric tons, he said.

The Y-20's prototype has a maximum payload of 66 tons and a maximum take-off weight of more than 200 tons, according to reports.

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asif iqbal said:

A good way to check WS20 would be to install it on current fleet of IL-76 and clock up be hours then do all the testing and then switch to Y20

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SinoSoldier said:

Assuming that his statements are true, then that means the service aircraft maximum payload would be 76 metric tons.

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