vesicles
Colonel
I guess they wanted to show off their plane at the exhibit without having to haul the actual Y-20 into the building.
And pictures won't be as visual as a 3D model...
China's transport, tanker & heavy lift aircraft
- Thread starter Totoro
- Start date
I guess they wanted to show off their plane at the exhibit without having to haul the actual Y-20 into the building.
And pictures won't be as visual as a 3D model...
I mean why won't they just take a few pictures of the cockpit and release it to the public. Instead we have this guy at a exibition photographing it from a model.
Quickie
Colonel
Perhaps the final details of the cockpit are still classified.
But are these indeed 1xx5x-numbered serial aircraft or a temporary assignment - as previously done - of two prototypes for operational testing and conversion training ?
Deino
Eitherway they are progressing toward induction. China's total strategic airlift fleet at this point consist if i'm not mistaken out of 27 IL-76's and 3 IL-78's and that includes AWACS and tankers. They will have to set up a lot of new units and build up a lot of new bases.
Funny ... it seems as if this report missed the SDF:
IMO this number is far, far, far too much exaggerated !
Not even the USAF or the RuAF have such a huge fleet of transports even if You add all C-17, C-130 and C-5 in the USA or in Russia Il-78 + An-12 + An-124.
I think indeed that the PLAAF will purchase a larger number - maybe 200 - to establish a strategic lift capability and to bolster its transport fleet not only for military but also other "national" assets like emergency and disaster missions, but alone my "small" number of 200 would require about 10-12 new or transformed divisions; at all a completely new force structure.
Overall I won't be surprised if the PLAAF and other national assets would purchase between 200-300 Y-20s and maybe a few more for civil transport operators + some for export, but surely far less of these reported 1000.
Just my 2 cents,
Deino
IMO this number is far, far, far too much exaggerated !
Not even the USAF or the RuAF have such a huge fleet of transports even if You add all C-17, C-130 and C-5 in the USA or in Russia Il-78 + An-12 + An-124.
I think indeed that the PLAAF will purchase a larger number - maybe 200 - to establish a strategic lift capability and to bolster its transport fleet not only for military but also other "national" assets like emergency and disaster missions, but alone my "small" number of 200 would require about 10-12 new or transformed divisions; at all a completely new force structure.
Overall I won't be surprised if the PLAAF and other national assets would purchase between 200-300 Y-20s and maybe a few more for civil transport operators + some for export, but surely far less of these reported 1000.
Just my 2 cents,
Deino
asif iqbal
Lieutenant General
Think it was reported in the previous page Deino
But yes 1,000 units ? Seems doubtful
They will probably manage one unit per month at full pace so 12 in the year
If they run for 20 years that's probably enough
Don't think they could scale up to 50 units per year for 20 years to get 1,000 probably beyond the scope
But yes 1,000 units ? Seems doubtful
They will probably manage one unit per month at full pace so 12 in the year
If they run for 20 years that's probably enough
Don't think they could scale up to 50 units per year for 20 years to get 1,000 probably beyond the scope
I am more inclined to misinterpretation or misquotation by the media. 1000 may be the number AVIC expects to produce in the whole life time of Y-20, not the number to PLAF. 960 IL-76 is produced so far, not sure if IL-78 is included or not. So a total 1000 Y-20 is quite possible, after all the requirement for that class is there (forever maybe).
So far, googling only gives some English website including Jane's, but not a single Chinese source, not even people's daily which was allegedly the original source.
This number WILL include variants such as tanker and AWACS, due to PLA's lack of access to other large airframes. US air fleet, if you include tankers and AWACS, does exceed a thousand.
And this number is the life time of production -- so a late Y-20 may replace an early Y-20. So the active fleet may be smaller, but do consider at the end of production life of Y-20, Chinese economy will be multiple times the size of US economy -- that implies the ability to sustain and the possible need consistent with the larger scale.