Chinese Engine Development

antiterror13

Brigadier
Initial versions of the WS-10 lacked thrust to be used on the J-20. They were fine for the Flankers. Both aircraft have roughly the same weight of the airframe but for whatever reason China wanted more engine performance. From comments made by the Russians I think China wanted import the Al-41F1 for J-20 but the Russians denied it. The engine the Russians provided has similar thrust levels anyway. But it uses older technology.

I think the Russians want to keep the latest generation to themselves so they have something to export. i.e. they will sell whole systems with latest generation hardware but not isolated components.

And I think now the Russian regretting of not selling AL-41F to China
 

RadDisconnect

New Member
Registered Member
One thing that I like to see some clarification on for WS-10 variants. Is the WS-10A only used on J-11/J-16 and the WS-10B only used on J-10? I’ve heard conflicting information on this matter, since I had always assumed the A goes on Flankers while the B goes on J-10 and the C goes on J-20, but I’ve also seen reports of WS-10B on the J-16.
 

kurutoga

Junior Member
Registered Member
One thing that I like to see some clarification on for WS-10 variants. Is the WS-10A only used on J-11/J-16 and the WS-10B only used on J-10? I’ve heard conflicting information on this matter, since I had always assumed the A goes on Flankers while the B goes on J-10 and the C goes on J-20, but I’ve also seen reports of WS-10B on the J-16.

My impression was WS-10B has completely replaced WS-10A in all application. People have been saying WS-10A was only used briefly on J-11. Subsequent J-11 and J-16 were all WS-10B. However, it is just hearsay.
 

by78

General
A heavy oil piston engine (for UAVs) developed by the 31st institute of CASC has recently made its first flight.

52621504600_3cde38098a_o.jpg
52621332109_47ec006b48_o.jpg
 

latenlazy

Brigadier
The banner reads "祝贺空天动力试验台顺利进入系统联调", which roughly translates into "Celebrating the smooth transition into systematic calibration/debugging phase of a aero-engine test bench". I wonder if this might have something to do with this, although the model doesn't quite exactly match this.

52623225030_03437ec531_o.jpg
Looks like a pressure chamber, so probably an engine test bench meant to simulate different altitude and flight conditions.
 

RadDisconnect

New Member
Registered Member
And I think now the Russian regretting of not selling AL-41F to China
They may have to stick with the AL-41F1 even longer than planned if the slow testing pace of the izd.30 is anything to go by. With the Su-57 nacelle size being largely the same as a Flanker, they can’t afford to go much different in size than the AL-31 family like the AL-41F1. Maybe the silver lining is that when the izd.30 is finally finished, whenever that it can be used in Flankers too.

Frankly the Russians may have been too ambitious here, because they want to keep such high performance that’s better than F119 while being the same footprint as AL-41F1, which is similar to F110 in size. According to Japanese papers on their XF9-1 engine, the F119 inlet diameter is almost 1m which would suggest 950mm or more if that value is rounded. Compare to 905mm for AL-31F, and 932mm for AL-41F1/F1S, and 35.66” or 906mm for F110-GE-400. The Russians may trying to do something that’s beyond what they can make affordable or be durable enough. Though honestly even Japan’s goal with XF9-1 might be too much of a reach, they’re trying to have F119 thrust levels while being similar size as the F110.

Next to nothing is known about the WS-15, so I don’t know just how ambitious China is with this engine. They’re well within a generation of the Russians when it comes to fighter engines, but with vastly more funding available there’s a possibility that it reaches service before izd.30. That said, I don’t know if the WS-15 is attempting to keep the same footprint as the AL-31 family since it’s optimized for J-20 from the beginning.
 
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