Every engine encountered teething problem when they first introduced even the fame F100 that power early J 16
Comparison with the west is completely unfair. The west has 70 years to perfect the Gas Turbine plus there are cross fertilization between the pioneer engine of England and GE/ In fact Rolls Royce transfer the blue print of first gas turbine to GE. Check this excellent article on Gas Turbine
China completely missed the incubation period of Gas Turbine from 1950 to 1990. And for years the defense budget was starved from period of 1980 to 1980 .Heck University doesn't even resume teaching until 1989.
Not only that, but China is subjected to technology embargo until today.Chinese engineer or scientist is barred from attending technical conference relating to the strategic technology. No technology transfer whatsoever. The Chinese have to reinvent every progress in Gas turbine alone. with no civilian aerospace industry to speak of It is not an easy job with no pool of experience technician or engineers to draw from
What they have achieved so far is remarkable and compress the development of Gas turbine from 80 years to 30 years.Compare to F100 they have fewer problem and fatality check the record of early F16 accident just google it . No J11B is falling from the sky
So give China more time and they will increase the reliability of WS 10A. So all the snipping and condescending comment is unwarranted. It is too early to write off WS 10A as failure. In fact yesterday saw a new J11B with Taihang engine for PLAN regiments WS10A is alive and kicking
The F100 engine was first tried in service with the F-15 Eagle. The Air Force had hoped that the F100 engine would be a mature and reliable powerplant by the time that the F-16 was ready to enter service.
However, there were a protracted series of teething troubles with the F100 powerplants of the F-15, compounded by labor problems at two of the major subcontractors. Initially, the Air Force had grossly underestimated the number of engine powercycles per sortie, since they had not realized how much the F-15 Eagle's maneuvering capabilities would result in abrupt changes in throttle setting. This caused unexpectedly high wear and tear on the engine, resulting in frequent failures of key engine components such as first-stage turbine blades. Most of these problems could be corrected by more careful maintenance and closer attention to quality control during manufacturing of engine components. Nevertheless, by the end of 1979, the Air Force was being forced to accept engineless F-15 airframes until the problems could be cleared up.
However, the most serious problem with the F100 in the F-15 was with stagnation stalling. Since the compressor blades of a jet engine are airfoil sections, they can stall if the angle at which the airflow strikes them exceeds a critical value, cutting off airflow into the combustion chamber which results in a sudden loss of thrust. Such an event is called a stagnation stall. Stagnation stalls most often occurred during high angle-of-attack maneuvers, and they usually resulted in abrupt interruptions of the flow of air through the compressor. This caused the engine core to lose speed, and the turbine to overheat. If this condition was not quickly corrected, damage to the turbine could take place or a fire could occur.
Last edited by Hendrik_2000; 07-21-2013 at 01:50 PM.
Again, we can use the f100 engine as an analogue. It took about 7 years for them to introduce the f100-200 as a replacement.
