Chinese Aviation Industry

MeiouHades said:

I mean, many countries are switching to turbofan based ASW/MPA aircrafts so I imagine it has some value that turboprops don't. And in fact, to me it's not a question of if China will do it but when, and I imagine the answer to that might be soon. IIRC there was a nice graphic floating around here that depicted the C919 being adapted for various special mission roles like the B737 did.

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Western militaries switch to aircraft with turbofan because they are adopting civilian aircraft for military roles, and civilian aircraft use turbofan.

Civilian aircraft are not ideal for military uses. The reason civilian aircraft are being adopted because there are already thousands of airframe available with parts readily available in major airports all around the world. This beats having at most dozens of airframes of a specialized platform with no parts available.

In the case of China, the situation is reversed. There are more military platforms available than there are civilian, and military parts are readily available. C919 won't be adopt until there are at least 1000+ airframes flying, which essentially means C919 will not be adopted for military roles.

AG600 large amphibious firefighting aircraft has successfully completed its first field-environment water-scooping and aerial water-dropping flight test in northeast China’s Jilin Province. With a capacity of carrying up to 12 tonnes of water, the AG600 can continuously scoop and drop water up to 10 times, releasing a total of 120 tonnes of water over an area of more than 40,000 square meters.