Chinese Aviation Industry

You know, I kinda wish AVIC had bought over the Mitsubishi Spacejet programme, kind of like what Airbus did with the Cseries

Spacejet certainly looks way better than the ARJ

Something went deeply wrong with the Spacejet program. You would not redesign an aircraft from composites back to aluminium unless you f'ed up.

sndef888 said:

You know, I kinda wish AVIC had bought over the Mitsubishi Spacejet programme, kind of like what Airbus did with the Cseries

Spacejet certainly looks way better than the ARJ

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If it was worth anything, Airbus and Boeing would have looked and bid for it like the Bombardier C-Series or Embraer E-Jets. No interest from anyone so it was literally trashed.

I think one of the claims was that it was so expensive to build because of the composites it didn't make any sense in the segment it was aiming for. Perhaps they should have turned it into a business jet for rich oil Sheiks or something.

Very nice images of the AS700 aerostat.

by78 said:

AC313A commences cold weather testing in the far northern city of Mohe.

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A press blurb about AC313A's extreme cold weather testing. So far, the helicopter has completed 20 hours of flight tests in extreme cold and achieved 100% success rate in cold temperature (-40°C) starts, midair engine restarts, etc. The environmental control system is able to keep the cabin temperature at above 15°C throughout. Max cold temp takeoff weight reached 13.8 tons, and max air speed reached 340km/h.

by78 said:

Very nice images of the AS700 aerostat.

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Do we have any background information about this aerostat? Its history, potential user, diemnsions?

Deino said:

Do we have any background information about this aerostat? Its history, potential user, diemnsions?

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Yes, we do.

A Chinese four-seat hydrogen internal combustion aircraft prototype is pictured in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province, Jan. 29, 2024. (Xinhua)

SHENYANG, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese four-seat hydrogen internal combustion aircraft prototype completed its maiden flight on Monday in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province.

The aircraft, when at a flight altitude of 200 meters, has sufficient power and an acceptable level of vibration while producing good performance, according to Xu Xiaoben, who served as the test pilot.

The aircraft is 8.2 meters in length and is capable of high-pressure gas hydrogen storage of up to 4.5 kilograms. The cruising speed of this aircraft is 180 kilometers per hour.

In addition, the maximum thermal efficiency of the aircraft's hydrogen internal combustion engine is in excess of 43 percent.

With increasing attention to clean energy and stricter control of carbon emissions in the aviation industry, aircraft using hydrogen fuel will be more favored in the future, according to Sun Xiaoping, chief technologist of Liaoning General Aviation Academy.

The validation model of the aircraft completed a test flight in Shenyang on March 25, 2023. The validation model was equipped with a zero emission supercharged direct injection hydrogen combustion engine of 80 kw, developed by the FAW Group Co., Ltd.

This is the first independently-developed general aviation aircraft in China to be powered by a hydrogen internal combustion engine.

Notice how the press release says nothing about the range of this hydrogen powered aircraft. This isn't a coincidence.