China's transport, tanker & heavy lift aircraft

Deino

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
If you meant "refuelling", then it should have been YY-20. Y(运/Yun/transport) Y(油/You/fuel) -20. The refuelling H-6 is "HY-6" for example. U in English is pronounced You in mandarin (Pinyin).

Yes I know this issue, but the tanker variant of the H-6 is also called H-6U.
 

taxiya

Brigadier
Registered Member
Yes I know this issue, but the tanker variant of the H-6 is also called H-6U.
The Chinese name of any H-6 based tanker is always "轰油-6" (HY-6), that is the designation of refuelling (油) is part before the "-". Anything before the dash represents the category (bomber, fighter or tanker), the number is the type, the letter following is the variant. The actual variant of a H-6 based tanker is actually HY-6U instead, while H-6U would be a bomber variant.

The point is that China use Pinyin (Y) for type, and English letter (U) for variant dictated by GJB.
 

Hendrik_2000

Lieutenant General
On the assembly line of Y-20

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D1ADy5QU8AAF2cJ.jpg
 

Totoro

Major
VIP Professional
This last image should be that long, somewhat narrow building at Xian, last one in the chain before the planes are done. Still, it's peculiar that they'd take the planes inside on the narrow end, then turn them 90 degrees until they're fully furnished, then turn them again so they can go out the other end of the building. That seems quite inefficient if there's an issue with one plane, as it'd block the other planes in the batch.
 

taxiya

Brigadier
Registered Member
The first two and last two photos are from different buildings if one look at the ceiling.
  • The ceilings of the first two have thick beams and one crossed bars in between each beams. They also have vertical chutes or beams from the ceiling to the ground, probably for attaching tools and cables. This building also have skylight.
  • The ceilings of the last two have no beams and no vertical structures. The ceilings have continuous crossed bars.
One can actually try to identify the two buildings by first search for the skylight, then a big building nearby without skylight. In between there should be broad road, probably with a centre line marking like airport taxi way.
 
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