China's transport, tanker & heavy lift aircraft

asif iqbal

asif iqbal

Lieutenant General
I think most people are missing the point

I said "utilise" the word means getting maximum out of something

So to utilise Y-20 it needs the indigenous engines to get max lift for a fully combat ready MBT

Goes without saying that Y-20 with Russian engine is a improvement over current units but that's not the point here
 
Quickie

Quickie

Colonel
Deino said:
Come on ... a tanker in a B-737 or A.320-sized airliner ???!!! How many of them are operational ??

Maybe at best in the special EW-roles, as VIP-transports ... maybe even ASW but surely not as a tanker and that all only AFTER the C919 is certified, all western systems were replaced and serial production has a capacity large enough besides all civil orders. So forget that idea at least within the next 10 years.
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I tend to agree. A civilian airliner is not designed to withstand wild changes in the load pattern.

 
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Engineer

Engineer

Major
manqiangrexue said:
What does that mean? That you think C919, a medium commercial airliner, won't sell even enough to be made in numbers higher than Y-20, a military lift jet? It's already got over 500 orders and hasn't even flown yet; I don't know if China wants to order 500 Y-20 air frames.
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The bold part is exactly what I mean. Whether C919 is successful will depend largely on whether the aircraft can get FAA's flight certificate, and I am highly skeptical that the US will play fair. Assuming C919 does receive a certificate, at an averaged production rate of 50 per year, it will be another 10 years until manufacturing slots are freed up for militarized airframes. By that time, there will be enough Y-20 covering China's needs already.

manqiangrexue said:
Plus, I may be wrong, but I feel that C919 is inherently a cheaper aircraft to make than Y-20 since it's smaller and uses only 2 engines as opposed to 4 (we're talking all WS-20 here). It doesn't have the lifting power of Y-20, but do tankers and AWACs need that type of lifting power?
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Power for radar isn't going to come form nowhere. Also, having four engines means more redundancy in case a missile is lucky enough to pass through all the defenses.

manqiangrexue said:
Maybe not because China is miniaturizing AWACs technology, putting the power of the KJ-2000 in a KJ-500. But maybe the extra lift is useful; perhaps they can put a super radar into use that only the Y-20 can carry to make the world's finest AWAC...
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Just like money, there will never be enough radar power. Miniaturization just means space gets freed up for even more electronics.
 
A

antiterror13

Brigadier
manqiangrexue said:
What does that mean? That you think C919, a medium commercial airliner, won't sell even enough to be made in numbers higher than Y-20, a military lift jet? It's already got over 500 orders and hasn't even flown yet; I don't know if China wants to order 500 Y-20 air frames. Plus, I may be wrong, but I feel that C919 is inherently a cheaper aircraft to make than Y-20 since it's smaller and uses only 2 engines as opposed to 4 (we're talking all WS-20 here). It doesn't have the lifting power of Y-20, but do tankers and AWACs need that type of lifting power? Maybe not because China is miniaturizing AWACs technology, putting the power of the KJ-2000 in a KJ-500. But maybe the extra lift is useful; perhaps they can put a super radar into use that only the Y-20 can carry to make the world's finest AWAC...
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I don't think C919 would use WS-20, it was always designed for LEAP-1C engine in mind. It would be extremely hard for China (at least in the next 20 years) to sell a big commercial plane fitted with Chinese engine (high perf. turbo fan) ... I am not saying Chinese engine is not good, but the perception of safety and quality in engine commercial market is hard to break. High perf. turbo fan engines produced by 3 countries would still dominated the commercial market in the next 20 years (US, UK and France)
 
Blitzo

Blitzo

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
antiterror13 said:
I don't think C919 would use WS-20, it was always designed for LEAP-1C engine in mind. It would be extremely hard for China (at least in the next 20 years) to sell a big commercial plane fitted with Chinese engine (high perf. turbo fan) ... I am not saying Chinese engine (high perf turbo fan) is not good, but the perception of safety and quality in engine commercial market is hard to break. High perf. turbo fan engines produced by 3 countries would still dominated the commercial market in the next 20 years (US, UK and France)
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C919 will probably not use WS-20 commercially, but a military variant of C919 could potentially use WS-20 if a more efficient commercial turbofan cannot be found and if the Air Force wants a military variant.
 
A

antiterror13

Brigadier
vincent said:
It will take a long time to replace all those foreign systems in c919, especially the engine, which require lots of flight testing
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And I don't think it will and necessary. Foreign systems and engines for commercial air planes (and international market) are perfectly fine
 
A

antiterror13

Brigadier
Bltizo said:
C919 will probably not use WS-20 commercially, but a military variant of C919 could potentially use WS-20 if a more efficient commercial turbofan cannot be found and if the Air Force wants a military variant.
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Agree, and China may not be able to buy (or want to) foreign systems and engines for military (C919)
 
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