Z-8 and Z-18 transport helicopter - family & versions

TerraN_EmpirE said:

Have these been flipped? Or did they flip the tail rotor and horizontal?

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Here it's correct.

Deino said:

A model of the Z-8L, which was previously known as the Z-8 wide body variant.

View attachment 50561

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Here is the complete set. All images are high-resolution.

A few observations:
1) The official designation is apparently "Z-8L宽”. 宽 is the character for 'wide', so it translates as "Z-8L Wide".
2) Note the pilot helmets in the first photo, not sure if they accurately represent the real thing, but they look interesting to say the least

Deino said:

Here it's correct.

View attachment 50562

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thank you.
It's not unheard of for a helicopter to change tail orientation between models hence my confusion.

by78 said:

Here is the complete set. All images are high-resolution.

A few observations:
1) The official designation is apparently "Z-8L宽”. 宽 is the character for 'wide', so it translates as "Z-8L Wide".
2) Note the pilot helmets in the first photo, not sure if they accurately represent the real thing, but they look interesting to say the least

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Interesting if accurate. Clearly it would indicate a move to a land based mode of operations vs the boat shaped hull.
Before some one tries to say anything about that.
Yes if accurate it could still be naval based but the boat hull allows it to land in water with less concerns than a conventional form. The conventional from hull is better suited to some missions of a ground base vs the boat shape. That said it can still be water tight.

A similar evolution occurred with the Sikorsky S61 (SH3) where the line started with a Naval orientated helicopter, branched off a less boat shaped hull form in the form of the HH3 that would eventually form the core of a farther evolution that became the H53 as it scailed up and gained more powerful engines.

Now on the helmet it's not a stretch of reality just has to be confirmed as accurate. Helmet mounted cueing systems found in fighters have potential uses in choppers and other rotorcraft to. They offer augmented reality details like views from electro optics, telemetry from elevation and altimeter data. Proximity data for friendly craft, useful data like orientation flight level, air speed magnetic compass and instrumentation even in low to no light conditions

Looks good

Don’t know why they didn’t do this earlier

Great looking helo!

When I saw the Z-8L model, the Sikorsky S-92 came to mind. The Z-8L looks great though. Am I correct in assuming that the Z-8L would possibly be the PLA's main heavy cargo helicopter in the near future? As I understand the medium cargo is already handled by Mi-17s so it is safe to assume that Z-8L would be categorized as a heavy class of helicopters?

Dizasta1 said:

When I saw the Z-8L model, the Sikorsky S-92 came to mind. The Z-8L looks great though. Am I correct in assuming that the Z-8L would possibly be the PLA's main heavy cargo helicopter in the near future? As I understand the medium cargo is already handled by Mi-17s so it is safe to assume that Z-8L would be categorized as a heavy class of helicopters?

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The Z-18 and Mi-17s are in the same weight class in both cargo capacity and MTOW. The role of Z-18s will be to supplement and then gradually replace Mi-17s. Meanwhile, an entirely new category of helicopter will be adopted universally across the PLA in the form of the Z-20, a medium utility helicopter that the PLA previously lacked. The light utility helicopter class represented by the Z-9 that the PLA had previously been shoehorning into the Z-20's role will gradually fade and begin to serve only niche roles, such as SAR on the Liaoning.

As far as i can tell, the helicopters are depicted to scale. Noses actually seem the same. Cockpit overlays nicely, when helicopters are positioned nose to nose (Which is not the case in this image).

Differences:
Slightly different curve of the underside, starting after the cockpit. Almost as if old Z18 was fatter vertically, while new Z18 shaved some of the volume just under its interior cargo cabin.

Different curve of the engine section on top of the helicopter.

Different rear fuselage part of the cargo section. It's longer, and ramp is at a different angle.

Tail is largely the same though it's possible the curve on the underside of the vertical tailfin is more squared on the new z18. (and we saw on the other image that the horizontal tail surface is larger)

This is a big improvement in aerodynamics and most likely in many other components...
But is this going to be a base variant, old version will not being produced anymore? This is going to take a while for testing before goes operational?

jobjed said:

The Z-18 and Mi-17s are in the same weight class in both cargo capacity and MTOW. The role of Z-18s will be to supplement and then gradually replace Mi-17s. Meanwhile, an entirely new category of helicopter will be adopted universally across the PLA in the form of the Z-20, a medium utility helicopter that the PLA previously lacked. The light utility helicopter class represented by the Z-9 that the PLA had previously been shoehorning into the Z-20's role will gradually fade and begin to serve only niche roles, such as SAR on the Liaoning.

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Z-9 will continue on serving on ships with smaller flight decks, those that anything bigger than Z-9 would not fit to operate.

Still, it's hard to imagine that the Super Frelon bloodline can live on this long, when everywhere else outside China it has long been replaced.