Broccoli
Senior Member
Is there multiple WS-20 variants or just one?
Chinese Engine Development
- Thread starter jackbh
- Start date
Is there multiple WS-20 variants or just one?
Civil variant AEF-1300. model showcase in Zhuhai air show.
current WS-20 maximum thrust is 35,000-36,000 lbf. Shenyang working on more powerful WS-20 variant. thrust could be around 45,000-50,000.
AEF-1300 is a civilian oriented version of WS-20.
Think of it as a sawdust bread solution for C919 in case a sweeping ban of Leap-1 engine has occurred.
immediate cut off the engine supply hardly have any effect. coz plane is not in serial production.
COMAC building new assembly lines and resetting of supply chains. serial production won't begin before 2025. COMAC also has given some hint about peak production by 2028. so most probably mass production of C919 will commence with CJ-1000 engines.
Really can’t emphasize enough how pointless it is to go for much worse backup engines for a commercial product…certifying safety and then persuading customers to take the hit on operating costs when they could just get more A320s and 737s is far more trouble than it’s worth. You’re better off sinking that lost value into faster testing for the CJ-1000. The only scenario which this makes sense is if they ban A320s and 737s and Chinese commercial airliners literally have no choice but to buy C919s, and only if the turnaround time is so long that domestic civilian airliners can’t afford to wait.
agreed with your statement.
AEF-1300 came into begin existence coz of growing Chinese aviation industry. there will be a lot projects in future that will use this engine.
from the day1, COMAC made one rule. never compromise on quality this is why they have rejected 2 offers from Shenyang. Shenyang pitched WS-20 two times to COMAC. lol
CJ-1000A is just few years away from small scale production. assembly line is very hot and ready to produce engines. already several units have been produced. there is high chance that, AECC can produce 20 to 22 units of CJ-1000 before mass production.
Anyway, pointless is a big word , these backup engines are building the industry, forming engineers, manufacturing and certifying process. China is building up it's aircraft engines industry, you cannot build it on one project and risk to call it quit after a while ruining a lot of progress in a single pipeline dream.
All these engines are building up knowledges and just make Chinese industry stronger even if half of them just remains working options that will never be mass produced..
Anyone who lived through the 2010 Taihang fiasco knows that no truer words have been spoken.