Z-10 thread
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ladioussupp
Junior Member
This Apache full sized model was placed at a "National Defense Education Base" in Ningbo.
Equation
Lieutenant General
My hunch is it is not a model. It looks a little too accurate to be a model. Also a model that needed to be transported would more likely than not be made in such a way so that it can be easily disassembled for transport. It wouldn't need to be moved in one piece.
AH-64's basic design is not exactly state of the art. Given that the Chinese can produce a attack helicopter of their own, and certainly has access to more advanced fabrication and design techniques than was available to the original designers of the Apache in the late 1970s, I highly doubt they would resort to making almost carbon copies of the AH-64, even if late models of AH-64 embody technologies they would like to copy.
So I think it is real foreign sourced AH-64 they somehow got their hands on.
AH-64's basic design is not exactly state of the art. Given that the Chinese can produce a attack helicopter of their own, and certainly has access to more advanced fabrication and design techniques than was available to the original designers of the Apache in the late 1970s, I highly doubt they would resort to making almost carbon copies of the AH-64, even if late models of AH-64 embody technologies they would like to copy.
So I think it is real foreign sourced AH-64 they somehow got their hands on.
Skywatcher
Captain
If they did grab an Apache, it'd undergo a lot more security (foreign materials are highly classified here, and I don't see why China would treat such items differently).
It's just a model ... China had a proclivity for makin models of western aircraft and showing them at various military theme parks, cause you know, it's kind of difficult to get a real used apache or whatever
And if it were the real thing, it would be under wraps too, like Z-20 or J-21 originally. But that notion shouldn't even be entertained. Why would they want to clone an apache when Z-10 with updated engines would deliver the same? Why a carbon copy? It's not like apaches airframe lends it some particular kinematic or stealthy advantage that one can leverage only by clonin it's shape
And if it were the real thing, it would be under wraps too, like Z-20 or J-21 originally. But that notion shouldn't even be entertained. Why would they want to clone an apache when Z-10 with updated engines would deliver the same? Why a carbon copy? It's not like apaches airframe lends it some particular kinematic or stealthy advantage that one can leverage only by clonin it's shape
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Clone no, reverse engineering its avionics, evaluation of its performance characteristics, yes.
... But why would you need an apache airframe if you just want its avionics?
And it's not like AH-64 holds any particularly advanced avionics which the indigenous industry cannot produce near equivalents of.
Further, there's no real need to assess the performance of an apache either, as its specifications are all publicly available. Nor is there a need for a full sized RCS test frame, because 1: it clearly isn't stealthy at all, so such a need would be academic rather than for practical purpoes, and 2: MANPADS and helicopter based A2A missiles rely in IR homing...
The fact that people were considering this thing's veracity confuses me.
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