Chinese Engine Development
- Thread starter jackbh
- Start date
Not sure if it is WS-15, since WS-15 is from Xian, but the engine in the article is from Sichuan.
Maybe WS-18 for the H-6K bomber? It is said that WS-18 is developed in Chengdu.
Schumacher
Senior Member
Sichuan is the location of the high altitude simulator where WS15 did the final ground tests.
WS18 is way past this, it's completed or certified whatever the term is.
And you can bet WS18 cannot bring out the big guy to hand out the awards like in the report here for an intermediate milestone.
Would you mind sending me some articles on this if possible? I would like to read more, as there are far less reports on WS-18 than WS-15. Although the common perception is that WS-18 is less of a priority than WS-15, the current H-6K production is limited by how may D-30 engines the Russians are willing to export. This is why I consider the WS-18 to be just as important as the WS-15. WS-18s and WS-20s would make China's bomber fleet completely independent from dependence on foreign technology.
I believe WS-18 was already meant to be at the flight testing stage, they used the old KJ-2000 testbed 762 for that very purpose a while back, I recall.
WS-18 is obviously quite important to chinese military aviation, but it's in quite a different class of importance and prestige compared to WS-15. WS-18 is a reverse engineered copy of a relatively inefficient cold war era soviet design whose long term utility in the chinese air fleet is limited to act as interim engines for Y-20, and to support the gap filler bombers and transporters of H-6Ks and Il-76s.
OTOH, WS-15 is an indigenous, clean sheet design on the cutting edge of what the industry can produce, whose short term utility will be to power the air force's primary next generation fighter, and which will likely spawn multiple variants in the long term and beyond...
but either way, I'm not sure if using our own interpretations of the importance of various engine projects is a good way of judging which engine it actually refers to. It seems quite deliberately vague.
Schumacher
Senior Member
I don't keep those reports.
Interestingly, this also begs the question. Is the 'delay' in 2016 due to the wait for WS15 ?
antiterror13
Brigadier
I've got a funny feeling it is the case, waiting WS-15 for 2016
They don't always test an engine in the same location as the *namesake* of the firm...
The WS-15 is more important because there are high bypass variants they plan on developing from the engine core. The WS-18 is a sufficient stop gap, but strategically the WS-15 has a lot more riding on it beyond fighters.
Unlikely. For one, if true this is only the completion of ground tests. They'll probably move to high altitude tests on a flying test bed next. Second, installing the WS-15 might require a redesign of the tail, which isn't something you can just do in short order.
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Well...if the WS-15 starts testing on J-20 in 2016, we could well see first batch of J-20 in service by 2018. Ultimately, I think having the WS-15 armed J-20s in service by 2020 is an achievable goal, as long as the WS-15 development goes smoothly.
Schumacher
Senior Member
Yes, flying on the IL76 test bed next is the most likely.
But have to add that the time it will spend there will be a lot less than say WS20 which never went thru years of ground based simulator like what WS15 did.
Flying on J20 and IL76 at the same time is possible as well. They have flown J20 for 4 years. Likely they have done some single engine flying by now.
Modifying one of the mature J20 frames to take one WS15 and the original tested engine sounds safe enough.