If the pattern holds then Anshan will receive the first batch of WS-15 J-20A. There will be a market for hand-me-down J-20 forming within PLAAF pretty soon.
J-20 5th Gen Fighter Thread VIII
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
That will be indeed the question since we already have almost three units - namely the 9th, the 5th and 41st ABs - as former vanilla J-20 units, which replaced the old ones with the improved J-20A. As such there should be soon rumour regarding 2 - 3 additional units converting to regular J-20! Any hints already?
How true would this be?
At least it’s not Stephen Chen. But as a whole I don’t put SCMP too high on the credibility list.
This is completely expected given China's level of manufacturing sophistication.
Well, dark factories are general trend of manufacturing, especially for nations strong on manufacturing robotics (there are other concurrent trends overall, but it depends on country by country basis). Plane is ultimately batch manufacturing goods.
If you can assemble cars, you can assemble aircraft.
lcloo
Major
The dark factory setting is mainly for the component manufacturing and the "skeleton" of the aircraft. Final assembly still need human hands.
As per the news article:
"China has more than doubled the production efficiency of stealth fighter components in a “dark factory”, where autonomous vehicles and AI-driven machinery operate nearly 24 hours a day.
The process once required employees to monitor its round-the-clock operations, but the plant can now produce the “skeleton” of an aircraft in near darkness, according to the official Science and Technology Daily."
"The plant is also equipped with intelligent scanning systems and robots that can inspect products and quickly generate reports."
"It has also reduced the hours of human labour needed to operate the plant by more than 80 per cent – although workers are still needed for the final assembly of the planes."
As per the news article:
"China has more than doubled the production efficiency of stealth fighter components in a “dark factory”, where autonomous vehicles and AI-driven machinery operate nearly 24 hours a day.
The process once required employees to monitor its round-the-clock operations, but the plant can now produce the “skeleton” of an aircraft in near darkness, according to the official Science and Technology Daily."
"The plant is also equipped with intelligent scanning systems and robots that can inspect products and quickly generate reports."
"It has also reduced the hours of human labour needed to operate the plant by more than 80 per cent – although workers are still needed for the final assembly of the planes."
Wonder if this implies that the frame and bulkheads are actually all 3D printed now.