H-20 bomber (with H-X, JH-XX)

broadsword said:

The reason I asked @Totoro was that he was saying the obvious, here:

I was implying the H-20 will be similarly tested.

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I don't understand why you asked Totoro the question in post 2656, if you already agreed with what he wrote.

The fact that you wrote the question, made it seem to me that you weren't sure how J-20 was tested prior to its maiden flight and you were asking how J-20's testing and maiden flight cycle would proceed relative to that of H-20, so I was giving you the answer.

Blitzo said:

I don't understand why you asked Totoro the question in post 2656, if you already agreed with what he wrote.

The fact that you wrote the question, made it seem to me that you weren't sure how J-20 was tested prior to its maiden flight and you were asking how J-20's testing and maiden flight cycle would proceed relative to that of H-20, so I was giving you the answer.

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I asked that question because it did not seem apparent that the test can be conducted in the open after the reveal. But my question was a roundabout way of quizzing.

broadsword said:

I asked that question because it did not seem apparent that the test can be conducted in the open after the reveal. But my question was a roundabout way of quizzing.

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Just be more straight forward next time so that this kind of confusion doesn't happen again.

There's no reason to be roundabout -- if you request information or want an answer, just ask it and people will answer.

Blitzo said:

With taxi and ground tests prior to a first flight, during day time.

All of this is a bit academic...

I don't think anyone really expects H-20 to do a maiden flight without taxi and ground tests before hand -- and there's nothing in the original statements that suggest a first flight is imminent without normal preceding tests and procedures to occur first.



And while it is not fully impossible that H-20 could do a maiden flight at night, it is also very unlikely given the additional risks that doing a first flight of a new aircraft would present with nighttime visibility, and the fact that it wouldn't really hide it that well to the amount of space based sensors that exist.

Hiding a new aircraft of this size from being imaged in this day and age is basically impossible, if everyone is already expecting it.

What's likely going to happen is that the general shape and profile of the aircraft will be confirmed pretty quickly. Images that are higher quality taken from the ground, showing details of the aircraft, are not going to be released until somewhat later.

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Which begs the question - How did the US flight conduct flight tests on their B-2 Spirit back then?

ACuriousPLAFan said:

Which begs the question - How did the US flight conduct flight tests on their B-2 Spirit back then?

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I don't recall the USAF conducting any special measures for its first flight to be done any particular secrecy -- especially given it was actually publicly displayed in November 1988, and then only made its first flight half a year later in July 1989.


Really, so far as secrecy for developing major new aerospace projects like this goes, using extreme measures to hide the first flight of an aircraft as large as a bomber, is not that feasible in this age of modern sensors and probably not worth the risk to the flight testing regime.


Having the world confirm that you've flown a flying wing stealthy strategic bomber really is not that much of a scoop these days, especially in the case of H-20 when everyone's been expecting it to emerge for years (and the proper intelligence services of the world have certainly been expecting it).
What's more important would be trying to keep certain detailed imagery and minor details of the aircraft under closer wraps, meaning we probably won't get high quality imagery of the aircraft in the immediate months and years after the aircraft flies, but that is also pretty much the case with all new PLA aircraft anyhow.


If it was a fighter sized aircraft then perhaps it could be hidden a bit more easily, perhaps even with a degree of success (though there are a lot of satellites around these days) -- but a strategic bomber? That would be very difficult.

eprash said:

Probably a stupid question but does it make sense to have a tanker variant of H-20?

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It would be a huge waste of H-20 platform to use it as a tanker. There probably is a place for really stealthy tankers. That's what MQ-25 is all about .

I don't know if that's the best bang for the buck.

ACuriousPLAFan said:

Which begs the question - How did the US flight conduct flight tests on their B-2 Spirit back then?

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Keep in mind that we can probably make a general guess at the shape of H-20. But you are not going to get a better idea of how stealthy it is without more clear photos and knowledge of the stealth layer. So, I do expect very blurry photos to come out, since satellites will be able to get photos of the planform. There is no need to hide that info.

I'd expect H-20 to be more stealthy than B-2 (I've seen 0.01 to 0.1 sqm) given the advances in stealth layer and RCS modeling. IIRC, B-2 RCS suffered from mission profile being changed from high-altitude to low-altitude.

This picture went viral in 2019 saying that this was the wind tunnel model of Chinese H-20 bomber. Was that claim legit ?? What was the source of this picture?

Zisan Artaxerxes said:

This picture went viral in 2019 saying that this was the wind tunnel model of Chinese H-20 bomber. Was that claim legit ?? What was the source of this picture?

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I have not seen a Chinese wind tunnel like this, especially the blue, red and white paint work.

Zisan Artaxerxes said:

This picture went viral in 2019 saying that this was the wind tunnel model of Chinese H-20 bomber. Was that claim legit ?? What was the source of this picture?

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Didn't you read the article that contained this photo?

The article is the very origin. The title of the article "Chinese Stealth Bomber Wind Tunnel Model Emerges And It Looks Very Familiar" says it is H-2, but in the beginning of the article the author said that he don't think it is H-20, but just B-2 for study which is likely the truth.

I very much despise this author TYLER ROGOWAY for exactly the reason above. In his writings he takes every opportunity to say "China copy USA" as if that is his only purpose rather than aircraft.

No Chinese source claimed that this is H-20, only this Tyler character said so in big headline, then denied it in small fonts hidden inside. A disguising behaviour.

lcloo said:

I have not seen a Chinese wind tunnel like this, especially the blue, red and white paint work.

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The picture is from this article
In the last photo there is Chinese characters on the base of the supporting stand. It is either from China or from Japan because these characters are written in the same way in both countries.