Chinese Engine Development

b787

Captain
Please keep in mind that the West has not stagnated in the past 30 years while China was doing the catching up. In fact, the technological development in the Western nations has exploded in the past 3 decades. Yet, China has been able to catch up and narrow the gap significantly amid the tremendous technological advancement in the West.
China has not catch up, China has been allowed to catch up by the west and by the collapse of the Soviet Union, but what is true for China is also true for India, Brazil or any emerging market, however key technologies like jet engines are highly guarded secrets, thus what China has been allowed to copy or learn is old technology, thus Today China still struggles with jet engine technology.

The Trent engines or 117s engines can not be simply copy, because some secrets are not available and are not easy to be obtain, plus these engines continue to be developed and new engines are already in the table thus copying cars or cell phones is not comparable to copy jet engines and while China can build some key technologies still is not allowed to enter the jet engine technologies that are the pillars of western aerospace dominance.
 

cloyce

Junior Member
China has not catch up, China has been allowed to catch up by the west and by the collapse of the Soviet Union, but what is true for China is also true for India, Brazil or any emerging market, however key technologies like jet engines are highly guarded secrets, thus what China has been allowed to copy or learn is old technology, thus Today China still struggles with jet engine technology.

The Trent engines or 117s engines can not be simply copy, because some secrets are not available and are not easy to be obtain, plus these engines continue to be developed and new engines are already in the table thus copying cars or cell phones is not comparable to copy jet engines and while China can build some key technologies still is not allowed to enter the jet engine technologies that are the pillars of western aerospace dominance.
So, you are stating that the so called secrets cannot be discovered by China through research e developement but only "donated" by or copied from who already know these secrets.
 

latenlazy

Brigadier
Partnership is the only way for China, and i can affirm you China will remain behind as longs as it tries alone.

England for example has the Airbus and Rolls Royce company to keep its aviation industry, but without it, it will be already dead, they needed partnerships in military programs to remain alive in example Tornado, Alphajet, Sepecat Jaguar, Eurofighter, Concorde.

France has the same problem and Germany is the same, going alone is expensive and means you have to do more research this implies it takes more time.

By the time China has an engine like the 117 powering PAKFA or Su-35, Russia will go beyond to the new engine type 30, the US will accumulate 2 decades of F-135 technological experience.

To put an example the Y-20 uses old engines while the Russians only needed to re-engine the Il-76 and change the wing and they got a jet capable to compete with Y-20 with a minimum of re-engineering the old Il-76.

I am sure China will remain behind in engine technology as long as it does not work in partnerships, and as long as China faces the US over the China sea i see no future for their partnerships with the west, the BRICS will then be their only option but in the BRICS club only Russia has the technology to really be transferred to China.

By the time China catches with current western technology, the west will simply have moved on to a higher level and more sophisticated technology, the West has the resources to remain at least 2 decades ahead of China in engine technology, that is a fact that will remain a reality because the West controls the airline jet engine market and technology and that will not be challenged unless the right connections and partnerships are made.
China has not catch up, China has been allowed to catch up by the west and by the collapse of the Soviet Union, but what is true for China is also true for India, Brazil or any emerging market, however key technologies like jet engines are highly guarded secrets, thus what China has been allowed to copy or learn is old technology, thus Today China still struggles with jet engine technology.

The Trent engines or 117s engines can not be simply copy, because some secrets are not available and are not easy to be obtain, plus these engines continue to be developed and new engines are already in the table thus copying cars or cell phones is not comparable to copy jet engines and while China can build some key technologies still is not allowed to enter the jet engine technologies that are the pillars of western aerospace dominance.
Technology is not magical. What an organization or country is technologically capable depends on how strong it is in more fundamental sciences. Advantages in sciences held by one country is not insurmountable by another. Right now China's metallurgical and material sciences is still developing, but the rate of catch up for countries that can afford the resources is always greater than the rate of new advances.
 

vesicles

Colonel
China has not catch up, China has been allowed to catch up by the west and by the collapse of the Soviet Union,...

You keep ignoring the obvious. Of course, China has not caught up. However, the fact that the gap between China and the West is now much narrower than that of 3 decades ago means that China is moving forward at a faster pace. Higher acceleration, if you will. We all know from basic physics, an object with a higher acceleration will eventually catch up to another object moving slower. That's just basic physics. All I'm trying to show you is that it is possible for someone falling behind to catch up. China is doing it now based on its track record for past 3 decades.

Again, yes! China has not caught up to the West yet, but it is narrowing the gap, which means it will eventually catch up. You can't argue with basic physics, unless you disagree with the Newtonian laws of physics.
 

b787

Captain
So, you are stating that the so called secrets cannot be discovered by China through research e developement but only "donated" by or copied from who already know these secrets.
China can do it, can re-invent any thing the west has done in the past but by the time they catch up with that stage, the west has moved ahead into a new technology.

Partnerships are to stay up to date but they require mutual respect and mutual interest like EJ-200 or other jet engine programs have.
 

broadsword

Brigadier
Engines are like aircraft, they go by generations, the current WS-10 is one generation behind what the US or Russia have, one generation,..............

I am not sure if you understood the replies by the other respondents. It does not matter to China or for that matter any nation, if they start off with an engine a generation behind in technology. The overriding concern is to develop an indigenous engine industry. Without a domestic engine, talk of catching up is moot. Just look at China's manned space program, which is well behind the American, European and Russian. But they got it going.
 

latenlazy

Brigadier
China can do it, can re-invent any thing the west has done in the past but by the time they catch up with that stage, the west has moved ahead into a new technology.

Partnerships are to stay up to date but they require mutual respect and mutual interest like EJ-200 or other jet engine programs have.
New advances happen slower than learning old ones.
 

manqiangrexue

Brigadier
The latest Al-31 variants have the same thrust of 117
Source for that? What's the point of 117 then? Russians spend all that time and money to develop it, specifically saying that it's different from AL-31, then they upgrade the AL-31 to match and then now still need to develop Izdeliye 30? Nice job. Let's see a source.

China has not catch up, China has been allowed to catch up by the west and by the collapse of the Soviet Union, but what is true for China is also true for India, Brazil or any emerging market, however key technologies like jet engines are highly guarded secrets, thus what China has been allowed to copy or learn is old technology, thus Today China still struggles with jet engine technology.
Clearly, you are not understanding what happened. Nobody "allowed" China to "catch up", especially not in the engine game. "Allowing" someone to catch up would be, giving someone the blueprints to the engine, teaching them the material sciences behind it, then teaching them how to mass-manufacture with quality control on them. Having China figure out all that by itself is not "allowing" anybody anything. Those technologies have always been deeply guarded as they are today.

China can do it, can re-invent any thing the west has done in the past but by the time they catch up with that stage, the west has moved ahead into a new technology.
You cannot seriously be at this level of understanding here. You are still at the logic of, "If runner A and runner B started at the same point but runner A took off first, then runner B will forever be behind because by the time runner B gets to the point runner A was at, runner A will have gotten further." It's called running faster, ok? Try running the 200 against Usain Bolt and have him start 3 seconds after you and you'll understand.
 

Arcgem

New Member
Registered Member
This reminds me of Zeno's Paradox, in which Zeno argued that a runner will never catch up to a tortoise because by the time the runner travels to the tortoise's previous location, the tortoise will have moved further away.

While Zeno's logic was sound, it was obviously incorrect. Likewise, China does not have to tail others in engine technology forever.
 
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