China's transport, tanker & heavy lift aircraft

sunnymaxi

Major
Registered Member
China used to have close connections with Antonov in Ukraine. Antonov helped with designing the wing of the ARJ21 and the airframe of the Y-20. Chinese investors were also interested in producing the An-225 in China at one point.
China almost finalized the main assembly line of AN-225 to build second unfinished aircraft in 2016.. first flight was expected in 2019.

at the last moment America intervene and Ukraine government broke the agreement.. as per the source, Antonov even shared all drawings and prints with Xian aircraft. and this was the major reason why China wanted to purchase Motorsich.. AN-225 with D-18T engines..

Chinese always fascinated about super heavy lifter..
but they don't have the PD-35 engines for it either.
don't you think, PD-35/CJ-2000 will be overpowered..

WS-20/PS-90 extended variant with 45,000-50,000 lbf thrust is more than enough ...
 

gelgoog

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
About the D-18T engine, the Russians ended up making their own parts for it so they could maintain their An-124s. It seems they can now make enough parts for it that making a whole engine is a viable idea. Which is why Shoigu was claiming they would start manufacturing the An-124. If that does happen then the Slon might be cancelled.

It would not be the first time the Russians reverse engineered and made their own clones of Ukrainian engines. They made their clones of the Al-222 and some UGT gas turbines for example.

A quad engine PD-35/CJ-2000 transporter would have the size and payload of the six D-18T engine An-225. Four such engines have about the same power as six D-18T engines.

The WS-20/PS-90 are just too underpowered for such an aircraft. These engines are for the Y-20/Il-76.
 
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sunnymaxi

Major
Registered Member
The WS-20/PS-90 are just too underpowered for such an aircraft. These engines are for the Y-20/Il-76.
D-18T = 51,700 lbf thrust with 2.33m front fan diameter

GE-F138-100 = 51,000 lbf thrust with 2.36m front fan diameter
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WS-20 = 35,000 lbf thrust with 2.10m front fan diameter

PS-90 = 38,400 lbf thrust with 1.90m front fan diameter
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my point was, both WS-20/PS-90 can be developed into 50,000 lbf thrust machine.. this is what exactly Liming institute doing.. they are developing high thrust WS-20 Variant.. could be in the range of 45,000-50,000 lbf ..
 
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gelgoog

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
The D-18T and F138 engines are much larger and have larger gas generators. I know the PS-90 is already at the limit of its performance and I would not be surprised if the same was true of the WS-20.

Russia does make engines with larger gas generators like the NK-32 which could be repurposed into a high power turbofan with similar performance to those engines. But it takes a lot of effort to modify a military engine and make it reliable enough for civilian use.
 

lcloo

Captain
The D-18T and F138 engines are much larger and have larger gas generators. I know the PS-90 is already at the limit of its performance and I would not be surprised if the same was true of the WS-20.

Russia does make engines with larger gas generators like the NK-32 which could be repurposed into a high power turbofan with similar performance to those engines. But it takes a lot of effort to modify a military engine and make it reliable enough for civilian use.
Strange that you think that WS-20 is already at the limit of its performance.

WS-20 is a new engine that may have enter regular service only last year, and we don't have affirmative info on its real performance as yet. New engines always have a lot of room to evolve over times as new technologies become available.
 

by78

General
Self-explanatory.

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