Nah, z20 is a 10 ton chopper. Ac352 derived one would be a 7 to 7.5 ton one. Pretty much in between the existing 4 ton and 10 ton helicopters currently in use by the pla. When you dont need the lifting power, flight ceiling or range of z20, a 7 ton chopper would be a good choice. Plus pla is large enough to make an additional chopper class costs negligible.
Chinese Aviation Industry
- Thread starter FriedRiceNSpice
- Start date
For export
The cost is not negligible when the PLA has to build an entire new support infrastructure, trained personnel and supply chain for the helicopter.
Aerospatiale Dauphin (Z-9) and Super-Frelon (Z-8) say "Hi!"
Those are completely licensed while this is co dev
So?
This project is a Sino-French cooperation and is naturally affected by the political situation. After signing the agreement, France was not very willing to cooperate and had objections to the technology transfer and production distribution in the agreement. Therefore, the project was delayed in various ways. The Chinese side only obtained the production materials and licenses for the fuselage. As for the power system and on-board equipment, France has always been reluctant to carry out technology transfer and production licensing in accordance with the agreement
Nobody likes to share their critical technology, not even China. So its normal for France to be reluctant doing so. Since once you do, you lose control of that. Anyway, at least the project still went through despite the huge delays. Remains to be seen how much tech transfer was eventually made.