Chinese Engine Development

Lion said:

Very good analyse.. Indeed the plant responsible for overhaul AL-31FN and capable of extending the life of the engine is from CAC and not Shengyang.

Consider the fierce rival between SAC and CAC, it is possible CAC hate Shengyang Liming so much that they do not want WS-10 to be install in their J-10 and instead rely on their own AL-31FN which they can continue extend its life... But the possibility of RE AL-31FN is also very high. There is only much you can do to extend something. End of the day, the best way to continue keep aircraft running is to build an complete engine for it. Plus, more new birds are coming. Overhauling engine is not the solution to support so much plane.

Given that they are capable of extending the engine life. It show how much they have come to understand the whole engine. Even complete grasp of it. It will not be too difficult to predict they are capable of RE AL-31FN.

Of cos, this kind of thing will not be open and they will keep quiet about it.

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delft said:

But you do need a licence to produce new engines.

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delft said:

Surely if you bought 200 engines you can't power 300 single engined aircraft with them?

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Roger604 said:

Given how invested PLAAF is in AL-31F variants -- J-11A, J-10, J-15 prototype and even J-20 prototype, it would be well worth the investment capital to produce its own AL-31F variant!


My view is that Chengdu AC doesn't like FWS10 because the manufacturer Liming is related to Shenyang AC. That is why CAC insists on AL-31FN on J-10s and AL-31F variant on J-20. Yet importing engines are expensive and no contracts with NPO Saturn have been signed for AL-31F since 2009. So what's the solution? Get a CAC affiliated body to do "maintenance" work on the AL-31F that eventually turns into a major lifespan upgrade and eventually they just build the whole thing themselves.

That's what the "prize" from Beijing to the "maintenance" engineer is for!

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Quickie said:

I don't think there's such a law that forbids maintenance work that will extend the life of an equipment indefinitely as long as the equipment was legally bought in the first place. So, no one can actually complain if CAC seems to continue having an inventory of 500, or so, units of AL-31FN in operation or in storage, way passed their lifetime.

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Roger604 said:

Given how invested PLAAF is in AL-31F variants -- J-11A, J-10, J-15 prototype and even J-20 prototype, it would be well worth the investment capital to produce its own AL-31F variant!

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