asif iqbal
Lieutenant General
Deino where did this 762 unit come from? China never had A-50 AWACS so what is this unit? I am assuming this is not one of the four KJ-2000 AWACS??
Chinese Engine Development
- Thread starter jackbh
- Start date
You are indeed correct. It was - besides the four converted regular Il-76MD transports - one of two (IMO even three) additional Il-76 incolved in the KJ-2000 program. This particular aircraft was actually a former Russian Air Force A-50 with once the number “44”. It was delivered by Russia
on 25 October 1999 to Tel Aviv / Israel for the installation of the Phalcon-system as the first A-50I prototype and had the civil registration RA-78740 (c/n 0093486579 and f/n 6505).
Hope this helps a bit.
Deino
asif iqbal
Lieutenant General
Oh interesting thanks
So basically it was used as a test platform for the rotodome for the KJ-2000 programme now that that is over they have switched to using it as a platform for engine development, I must admit I did not know that learn something new event day on SDF!!
Skywatcher
Captain
If it is true, the engine must have come originally from Spain, Canada or Australia, unless Sino-American defense cooperation in the 1980s went a lot deeper.
so it claims that a medium thrust turbofan project was developed based on a F404 they obtained, but the project was eventually canned. I'm quite sceptical of these claims. Considering how much trouble they've had even getting WS-13 developed.
ladioussupp
Junior Member
Spain, Canada, and Australia are very intimate friends to U.S. I don't believe that China can "buy" one F404 from those users. There must exists logs of every engines in GE's support department.
I guess that the engine may come from Pakistan. According to the following link, Uncle Sam granted export of F404 and avionics of Super-7 project to Pakistan in January 1986. And Uncle Sam also granted exportation of J-8B avionics in June 1986 to China. In April 1987, PW visited China for probing feasibility of adopting PW1216 in Super-7 project. However, GE F404 was selected at the time. Maybe a sample of F404 was shipped to Pakistan for demonstration.
Besides, there is a possibility that the engine is provided by Singapore. In the same time frame,Grumman is responsible for replacing J65 with F404 on RSAF's A-4S. However, I think this possibility is quite remote. According to the following link, only two A-4SU crashed after the upgrade project kicked off. It is quite difficult to hide one F404 from these two accidents.
I wouldn't discount it being directly from America. Sino-American relations ran very very deep during the 80s. Reagan and Bush were very close to China, and they legitimately thought that China would be an important long term ally. China was even treated as a customer of the America defense industry and was also able to get their hands on a CFM-56 through that relationship. A huge reason why China managed to pursue independent development in the 90s was because of all the technology transfers they were the beneficiaries of in the 80s.
IF they really did get an F404 from the US, I'm not surprised that they would have failed to reverse engineer it or come out with anything productive at the time. Chinese industry was really not ready back then, as well documented by how long it took to really develop and mature the Taihang. If anything whatever knowledge and capability they got out of the engine went into assisting with the Taihang program. I'm not proposing this is what actually happened, but I think it's what is likely if they really did get a F404.
IF they really did get an F404 from the US, I'm not surprised that they would have failed to reverse engineer it or come out with anything productive at the time. Chinese industry was really not ready back then, as well documented by how long it took to really develop and mature the Taihang. If anything whatever knowledge and capability they got out of the engine went into assisting with the Taihang program. I'm not proposing this is what actually happened, but I think it's what is likely if they really did get a F404.
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