With the recent report of sale of 4 CASIC WJ-700 drones to Algeria and engine update for CASC CH-4, let's just talk a bit about the landscape of Chinese drone engines. We have two major players, Anhui Hangrui specializing in heavy-fuel piston engines and AECC specializing in various kinds of turbine engines. And there's a minor player, CASIC's inhouse engine division led by Beijing Institute of Mechanical Propulsion, which specializes in jet engines for missiles.
Hangrui and AECC work on largely different areas, although they have somewhat competing projects like Hangrui's 600kW "Golden Eagle" piston engine and AECC's 600kW AEP60E turboprop.
CASIC however offers CTF-12 1,000 kgf turbofan which is in the same class as AECC's AEF100 1,000 kgf turbofan. CASIC WJ-700 likely uses CTF-12. One of the reasons for splitting AECC from AVIC was so that AVIC competitors like CASC and CASIC would be willing to use AECC engines, but CASIC might still prefer using in-house engine whenever it's available.
CASIC has experiences in designing small jet engines for missiles, and CTF-12 can achieve some economy of scale if the engine is also used in cruise missiles and perhaps also through commonalities with other CTF series engines. But AEF100 also can have economy of scale if it's used by both CASC CHs and AVIC Wing Loongs. In addition, AEF100 shares its jet core design with AEP80 turboprop and AES100 turboshaft, so there could be many common parts.
There are two areas that AECC and Hangrui have a lot of experiences in and CASIC probably lacks. One is building engines with long TBO. Hangrui pistons are advertised as having TBO of 2,000 hours. AECC has also been steadily increasing its engines TBO. I don't know about CASIC, but considering they are missile jet specialists I don't think they have much experiences in producing high TBO engines, as TBO is irrelevant for missiles. Another area is FADEC. All Hangrui engines have FADEC and so are all new AECC models. Again, I don't think CASIC, coming from a missile jet engine background, has much experience with FADEC. There's no indication that CTF-12 uses FADEC. And I think it's a waste of resources for CASIC to develop in-house FADEC expertise when FADEC brings little benefits to its core missile business. I suspect once AEF100 matures, there will be market pressures for CASIC to switch to AEF100. But it's unclear whether the internal pressure to stay with in-house CFT-12 will prove stronger.
Well, at least having too many domestic turbofans to choose from is a problem China should be glad to have.
