Z-10 thread

[crobato]

That picture looks like its the Hu-man himself giving a visit.

 

[kickars]

And it's in the summer, probably last summer. Looks like they do take WZ-10 very serious indeed.

 

[AssassinsMace]

Is there any meaning that the WZ-10 in the Hu Jintao pic has a new top. Fitting for a Long Bow type radar?

 

[man overbored]

I'm an old helo pilot. The rotor head on the WZ-10 appears to be based on that of the latest versions of the Super Puma, the EC-725. Five clockwise rotating blades and their shape closely matches those of the French machine. It does not match appear to be a Mil sourced rotor system such as a modified Mi-17 rotor system. Considering how much French influence there is in every other Chinese made helicopter I wouldn't laugh that idea off. Not being able to touch the actual airframe and absent a nice detailed close up of the head I am speculating so flame away of course. It wouldn't surpise me to find Puma based gearboxes and other dynamic components in there.

 

[RedMercury]

Sigh, you could try reading the thread and looking at the reference page for WZ-10 on sinodefense.

 

[man overbored]

Sigh, you could try reading the thread and looking at the reference page for WZ-10 on sinodefense.

I did dude. It seems like everyone is confused. Z-10, WZ-10, or is it a WZ-15 the articles quoted are talking about? Then someone tosses in the idea that it started off a Kamov design. Lots of confusion, so being a reasonably experieced hand in helos I am tossing my two cents in. The Sinodefence page on the helo even has it powered by PT-6's. Do you buy that claim? Honestly?
The rotor of the WZ-10 looks to me to be French. I am not confusing this helo with any Chinese civil helo as some may be. I am looking at the few decent photo's of the WZ-10 gunship, and those of the EC-725 and judging them to share some genetics. Blade shape is right, and from the distant photos of the blade root it looks like a modern elastomeric design like Starflex, not what Mil uses ( and I have crawled all over Kamovs and the big Mi-26 ). Regarding the engines, after the stink with the US State Dept I very much doubt there will be PT-6's no matter what Sinodefence says. My guess is a Chinese made engine. Sorry my comments offended, it was not my intention. Mahalo bro.

 

[tphuang]

I did dude. It seems like everyone is confused. Z-10, WZ-10, or is it a WZ-15 the articles quoted are talking about? Then someone tosses in the idea that it started off a Kamov design. Lots of confusion, so being a reasonably experieced hand in helos I am tossing my two cents in. The Sinodefence page on the helo even has it powered by PT-6's. Do you buy that claim? Honestly?
The rotor of the WZ-10 looks to me to be French. I am not confusing this helo with any Chinese civil helo as some may be. I am looking at the few decent photo's of the WZ-10 gunship, and those of the EC-725 and judging them to share some genetics. Blade shape is right, and from the distant photos of the blade root it looks like a modern elastomeric design like Starflex, not what Mil uses ( and I have crawled all over Kamovs and the big Mi-26 ). Regarding the engines, after the stink with the US State Dept I very much doubt there will be PT-6's no matter what Sinodefence says. My guess is a Chinese made engine. Sorry my comments offended, it was not my intention. Mahalo bro.

much of what's said in sinodefense is true. About the cooperations and such. It's not too surprising that Z-10 shows Eurocopter influences, since Chinese helo industry likes to work with French. As for engine, it's using WZ-9 for the production version. It was always intended as such.

 

[Deino]

...
The rotor of the WZ-10 looks to me to be French. ....

Hmmm ??? I don't know for sure but as far as I know the rotor-system is said to be developed in cooperation with or even by Agusta and at least IMO it shares a lot more commonalaty to the Ab.139's roror !

Any comments ???

Deino

 

[man overbored]

Hmmm ??? I don't know for sure but as far as I know the rotor-system is said to be developed in cooperation with or even by Agusta and at least IMO it shares a lot more commonalaty to the Ab.139's roror !

Any comments ???

Deino

Nope, look carefully. The Mangusta uses a four bladed head and it rotates counter clockwise when viewed from above, the direction of rotation used by US, UK, Italian and Japanese helos. The latest version of the Super Puma, the EC-725 has a brand new rotor system with a five bladed head and, typical of French and Russian designs, rotates clockwise when viewed from about. Squint real hard at the shapes of the blades at their root and the rotor head itself. Looks more like Spheriflex than any Russian system. The only other five bladed clockwise rotating heads are Russian ( Mi-8 family, Hind, Mi-117 etc. ) which are not elastomeric like the French and Chinese rotor heads but old style "wet heads" using big tapered roller bearings in gear lube or maybe grease. The French head I am referring to is brand new.

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I'd like to see a closer view of the rotor head to make a final judgement. So far the pictures of the Chinese bird are not quite as good as those available for the Cougar, but my educated judgement is the WZ-10 is using a version of the new EC-725 head. I included photo's of the Cougar on the ground and flying so you can judge how motion of the head in flight makes the shape of the blades and blade roots a little hard to discern.

 

[Deino]

Nope, look carefully. The Mangusta uses a four bladed head and it rotates counter clockwise when .....

Hey ... did I sa anything about the Mangusta ????

If You look closely I wrote and posted the rotor-head of the Agusta-Bell AB.139 ... a 6t-helicopter powered by exactly the same engines !
Besides that the latest Mangusta-versions (A.129) are also driven by a 5-bladed rotor !


Deino