And also I can't add up all the YY-20A that has been built so far. With the last 8 seen so far in a january satellite picture, what is the total visually confirmed YY-20A? 23?
China's transport, tanker & heavy lift aircraft
- Thread starter Totoro
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That is the understanding.
However as I wrote Y-20B as a tanker lacks the centreline fuselage refuelling position that YY-20A has.
I don't know, what is an update defined as?
We are basically just waiting for pictures of the type in service, which predictably will be long delayed after it actually occurs
The sad fact is that we live in a world where the oversimplified graphs from some twitter user is more accuracy and informative than virtually all think tank and government reports.
Finally a recent image of XAC's facility at Xi'an but are these finally WS-20 powered Y-20Bs or still the old A-models?
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lcloo
Captain
Looks like 3 is a common denominator in this picture.
21 Y21 divided by 3 = 7
6 greenish yellow Y20 at bottom left of enlarged picture divide by 3 = 6
6 dark color Y20 at the left bottom of enlarged picture divide by 3 = 2
another 3 dark color Y20 at the top left of the enlarge picture divide by 3 = 1
May be, just may be there is an equation like
X * 3 * P = AP
3 is a constant
X = # of production line
P = production turn-over cycle per year
AP = Annual Production number.
Don't take this seriously, just something suddently flashed through my mind. Other satellite images may showed otherwise.
21 Y21 divided by 3 = 7
6 greenish yellow Y20 at bottom left of enlarged picture divide by 3 = 6
6 dark color Y20 at the left bottom of enlarged picture divide by 3 = 2
another 3 dark color Y20 at the top left of the enlarge picture divide by 3 = 1
May be, just may be there is an equation like
X * 3 * P = AP
3 is a constant
X = # of production line
P = production turn-over cycle per year
AP = Annual Production number.
Don't take this seriously, just something suddently flashed through my mind. Other satellite images may showed otherwise.
Really hard to tell, but it does look like some of those could be WS-20s, especially the green ones? Doesn't the WS-18 stick out forward a bit more? Can someone else try to estimate with the pixel lengths/widths.
Due to the lower resolution of the latest satellite photograph of Xi'an AC, it should be noted that rough guess-timates is what I can only do at best.
Firstly, for the Y-20s with grey paint - Due to them having nearly similar color to their respective shadows on the ground, it is very difficult to ascertain the engine's dimensions from guess-timations. So we'll leave them at that.
That leaves the Y-20s with green primer, as their color sharply contrasts with their respective shadows on the ground.
While I don't have first-hand information on the exact dimensions of the WS-18 and WS-20 (including their engine cowlings) - I do believe that resorting to roughly comparing the diameter of the engine cowlings of the WS-18 and WS-20 versus the fuselage diameter of the Y-20 should work somewhat.
Hence, with the prior setting in place - It can be said (both from observations of real-life photographs and the above CG illustration by @Astrosiren on Weibo) that the WS-18's diameter is roughly one-third to one-fourth that of the Y-20, whereas the WS-20's diameter is roughly one-half that of the Y-20.
Also, it should be noted that the engine cowling of the WS-18 does extend slightly beneath the leading edge of the wings of Y-20/A, whereas the engine cowling of WS-20s ends roughly almost right at the leading edge of the wings of the Y-20B. Again, clarification - Due to the (understandably slightly slanted) angle of the satellite taking the above photograph relative to the individual Y-20s on the ground, such method can still result in some degree of uncertainties with such methodology.
Therefore, from personal observation and guess-timations of the photograph - I believe that there are most likely at least some number of Y-20s in green primer that are of the Y-20B variant (i.e. with WS-20 engines) at Xi'an AC as late as early this month.
In the meantime, there may be two Y-20/As in green primer on the right side of the 1st photograph with WS-18 engines, though I'm not so sure whether that's the actual case.
Firstly, for the Y-20s with grey paint - Due to them having nearly similar color to their respective shadows on the ground, it is very difficult to ascertain the engine's dimensions from guess-timations. So we'll leave them at that.
That leaves the Y-20s with green primer, as their color sharply contrasts with their respective shadows on the ground.
While I don't have first-hand information on the exact dimensions of the WS-18 and WS-20 (including their engine cowlings) - I do believe that resorting to roughly comparing the diameter of the engine cowlings of the WS-18 and WS-20 versus the fuselage diameter of the Y-20 should work somewhat.
Hence, with the prior setting in place - It can be said (both from observations of real-life photographs and the above CG illustration by @Astrosiren on Weibo) that the WS-18's diameter is roughly one-third to one-fourth that of the Y-20, whereas the WS-20's diameter is roughly one-half that of the Y-20.
Also, it should be noted that the engine cowling of the WS-18 does extend slightly beneath the leading edge of the wings of Y-20/A, whereas the engine cowling of WS-20s ends roughly almost right at the leading edge of the wings of the Y-20B. Again, clarification - Due to the (understandably slightly slanted) angle of the satellite taking the above photograph relative to the individual Y-20s on the ground, such method can still result in some degree of uncertainties with such methodology.
Therefore, from personal observation and guess-timations of the photograph - I believe that there are most likely at least some number of Y-20s in green primer that are of the Y-20B variant (i.e. with WS-20 engines) at Xi'an AC as late as early this month.
In the meantime, there may be two Y-20/As in green primer on the right side of the 1st photograph with WS-18 engines, though I'm not so sure whether that's the actual case.
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