China's transport, tanker & heavy lift aircraft

Y9 a very good platform

I want to see serials

They must have like 40 units in operation by now

Add to that the Y20 and you have a very good strategic lift

And I remember when China had 14 x IL76 with 4 converted into AWACS

Check the formation

asif iqbal said:

Check the formation

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Practicing the October parade flyby formation, perhaps?
Also, looks like not using the high-bypass engines.

taxiya said:

WS-20 is almost ready, the program has been more than 10 years, CJ-1000 began much later and still has a long way to go, PLA can not wait.

CJ-1000 is more advanced, trying to match LEAP on both noise and fuel efficiency because C919 is going to compete A320NEO. For that reason, CJ-1000 has foreign assistance, I remember MTU aero is involved. I don't know if the foreign element of CJ-1000 will prohibit its early adoption by PLA. Even if that is not an issue, it is simply too late.

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You don't want to put a new generation airliner engine on a military airlifter anyway. The economics are completely different. Airliner engines are designed to minimise fuel burn above all other considerations because they spend so much time in the air. A military airlifter spends most of its time on the ground, so acquisition cost is much more important.

The second PLAAF unit after the 4th Transport Division, 10th Air Regiment gained its first Y-9 transport: This Y-9 numbered 55741 is assigned to the 5th Transportation and SAR Brigade (运输搜救第5旅) under the Central Theater Command.

Image Liu Yuxuan via CDF

we have heard nothing about the Y-30

while Y9 is going strong

looks like Y9 is here to stay

asif iqbal said:

we have heard nothing about the Y-30

while Y9 is going strong

looks like Y9 is here to stay

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The Chinese seem to be playing the same game for Y20,Z20,J20 as the USAF for B21, USN for DDG21, SSN21, India/ Lockheed Martin F21. If that game holds then Y30 means Transport 2030

From a practical standpoint. The PLAAF has limits in how many programs they can run at once... All Air Forces do. As such it’s better to fill out the fleet with whatever works now. Then Shift to bigger flashier newer later.
I mean Y9 is said to be about the same class as C130J well Y30 would be between KC390 and A400M. If you look at the Europeans they are buying C130J along side A400M.
This is as there are some jobs that a C130J and C130J30 are better for than A400M. Due to cost and other limits.
Look at the jobs the PLAAF has given to Y9 derivatives. AEW, ASW, EW, SIGNT, ELINT, Transport. Although a Y30 might be able to do them as, it would come at the price of additional maintenance and repair. The bigger the aircraft the higher level of TLC she needs. The same for the Y20. Other than Tanker and cargo is it absolutely needed to do the other jobs? If you took the radar from the Y9AEW and put it in a Y20 wouldn’t it be a waste of both? The bigger bird only gets justified with a bigger radar.

For many missions a Y9 platform would be fine. You save the larger bird for when you need it like heavier cargo say light armored vehicles that are increasingly not able to be carried by Tactical lifters or Medium helicopters that often outsize the cargo holds.

A high-wing dual engine turbofan KC-390/An-178/C-2 would be much better than some obsolete quad engine turbo-prop design like the KC390/A400M/Y-9.
Particularly in China which would need to basically build a huge fleet of these aircraft.
The construction and maintenance costs would be much smaller.

Fact is, Airbus did not want to make the A400M be a turboprop aircraft, this was imposed on them by the politicians who ran the competition. Even then, when they pushed them to use a turboprop, then Airbus wanted a Pratt&Whitney turboprop engine, and the politicians, once again, pushed on Airbus the Europrop engine which was the main cause of the delays with the aircraft entering service. The Airbus A400M was basically designed by a committee of politicians.

Turboprop have there ups and downs as do turbofans. A concern for the latter has been ingesting debris which has restricted them in some uses in short rough field. The type of close to the front operations that Tactical lifters tend to favor.