China's transport, tanker & heavy lift aircraft

Via LKJ 86 Y20 start air dropping heavy equipment
Y-20's completion of first heavy equipment airdrop is of great significance
Source | Editor Huang Panyue | Time 2018-06-12


Paratroopers assigned to the airborne troops under the PLA Air Force parachute from a Y-20 transport aircraft during a parachute training exercise in central China's Henan Province on May 8, 2018. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Liu Bingbing)

By Li Qiang

The Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) released a news on its official micro-blog account on June 11 that China's Y-20 heavy transport aircraft had conducted its first airborne jump and airdrop training jointly with airborne troops of the PLA Air Force in recent days. The news shows that the Y-20 may have had its first heavy equipment airdrop training, which is of great significance for the PLA airborne troops.

Actually, the PLA Air Force's official micro-blog account had released a similar news on May 8. The only difference is that the photos released by thePLA Air Force were mainly about the parachute jump training, without any scene of heavy equipment airdrop, whereas those released by the AVIC clearly displayed the scenes of Y-20’s heavy equipment airdrop, which means that the Y-20 transport aircraft has basically passed the test of heavy equipment airdrop.

Experts said that the Y-20’s completion of heavy equipment airdrop is of great significance to the improvement of the combat capability of China's airborne troops.

Since they were created, the airborne troops have been a "trump card" that can quickly defeat the enemy and has also won countless honors. But due to limited parachuting technology and carrying platform, the airborne troops' firepower is usually inferior to other ground troops, and even weaker than standard infantry troops.

Therefore, airdropping heavy equipment has become a key to improving the combat capability of airborne troops. Heavy equipment airdrop refers to airdropping heavy weapons and equipment over one ton. It is an essential guarantee for the remote maneuverability and fire assault capacity of modern airborne troops.

Compared with the previous heavy equipment airdrop by IL-76 and Y-8 military transport aircrafts, the Y-20 transport aircraft for this mission has the capacity of airdropping an eight-plus-ton ZBD-03 airborne armored infantry fighting vehicle (IFV). The advantage of the Y-20 is that it can carry multiple airborne combat vehicles or airdrop much heavier weapons and equipment.

However, it still takes more tests and training to give full play to the Y-20's advantages in large cargo hold and large loading capacity.

Disclaimer: The author is Li Qiang, reporter with the Global Times. The article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn. Chinamil.com.cn does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. If the article carries photographs or images, we do not vouch for their authenticity.

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asif iqbal said:

Why on Earth are they parading this thing through the streets ??

Was there no short cut ?

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Hehe there is no ordinary "Street", the whole Yanliang city was built as XAC complex, and pretty much remains so. Call it XAC city if you prefer.

jobjed said:

Both the picture you linked and the screenshot above show a human's height is about twice the diameter of the main landing gear wheel. There is no discernible size disparity. The attached wing and tail of the other picture inflates the size of the actual fuselage.


There are minute differences in the windscreen arrangement but they are overall very similar.

The front landing gear compartment also almost reaches the bottom of the radome, just like on the Y-20. Note all the doors have not been installed.

The top of the radome of the mystery airframe seems to reach further up from the usual Y-20 radome, explaining its "straightness" and proportional increase in size. However, the nose of the two aircraft still look identical in size, especially in proportion to the wheel and windows.

As of right now, I would give this airframe an 85% chance of being a modified, old, or shitty civilian-made model Y-20, a 10% chance of being the Y-30, and 5% chance something else.

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Sina says that it's a static testing airframe of the Y-20. Can't confirm that! However, compare the two, there are many points differences.

^^^
Y-30 static frame?

Hyperwarp said:

^^^
Y-30 static frame?

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Y-20 has barely gone into production, and there is another Large Transport aircraft Prototype and frame in the making? I don't understand it. Why not go full throttle with the Y-20 production first, as China sorely lacks airlift capability at the moment.

According an article written by Yankee (I think those who's been on this forum long enough will know him), this is not Y20, but a static test frame of an earlier version of Y20. Let me summarize the key points of his article below:

• Prior to designing and manufacturing the Y20, China sought help from Antonov and Antonov came up with a 186 tonne max take off weight plan codenamed TTC (Russian for Heavy Transport Aircraft).
• The TTC has a wider diameter fuselage than the IL-76 but it is overall smaller in size than the Y20, let alone the C-17. It is said its max load is less than 50 tonnes, not satisfactory for the PLAN.
• Despite this, the Chinese still followed through with the plan and design by Antonov and produced a frame for static testing, which is the one we're discussing now. This happened way before the official Y20 first appeared, however, back then it was also dubbed the Y20.
• The PLAN didn't proceed with Antonov's original design and instead made changes and enlarged the body of this design and made it more suitable for PLAN needs, including higher max take-off tonnage and load and a larger fuselage, among other changes.

A picture posted on CJDBY, said to be a part from the test frame. Notice the "Y20" and the date, 2009 08 28, which is many years before the Y20 took off.


The TTC Design

So Antonov helped with design then ?

asif iqbal said:

So Antonov helped with design then ?

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Yes, but that's known since years.

asif iqbal said:

So Antonov helped with design then ?

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Pretty sure there was always an understanding that Antonov was consulted to some degree. There was just never a clear consensus on how comprehensive the consultations were. If the above article is legit, and that's a questionable if, then cooperation with Antonov was quite close, involving a transfer of the overall structural design of sufficient detail to allow for full-scale static load-bearing tests. Apparently, Xi'an had to change a lot of stuff but Antonov did a lot of work. Of course, all this depends on how accurate the article is.

jobjed said:

Pretty sure there was always an understanding that Antonov was consulted to some degree. There was just never a clear consensus on how comprehensive the consultations were. If the above article is legit, and that's a questionable if, then cooperation with Antonov was quite close, involving a transfer of the overall structural design of sufficient detail to allow for full-scale static load-bearing tests. Apparently, Xi'an had to change a lot of stuff but Antonov did a lot of work. Of course, all this depends on how accurate the article is.

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It's credible, because China had never designed a large aircraft like Y-20 before. Actually, China had also asked for consultation and help from Russia when they designed the Z-10.

In both cases, I guess what most likely had happened was that China had its own respective teams, working on its own designs, but they also gave the specs to Ukrainian or Russian and asked for their input and, indeed, their designs based on the specs. The Chinese goals were not necessarily to copy directly the Russian or Ukrainian designs, but to confirm and/or incorporate the respective designs. It's a reflection of how prudent the Chinese had been approaching with something new and important. It would lower risk and cost.