Future High Speed Helicopter and next generation rotorcraft

Tomboy

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What's the play here? Compound coax for scout/light attack(S-97) presumably for the Army? and tiltrotor for naval and Marine transport(MV-75 and V-22)? Potentially that quad-tiltrotor for the Army as well if they decide to procure it? I guess all that's really left in terms of capability for Chinese helicopters would be basically the AHL project which seems to be in some sort of limbo.
 

Blitzo

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Presumably as both the HSH and tiltrotor are demonstrators, the operational products will be larger?

I would rephrase it as -- both of these are technology demonstrators that are not appropriately sized for adequate utility or attack helicopter use. If either or both of these technology demonstrator configurations are pursued for development into those roles, they would inevitably be larger.

"The operational products" makes it sound like it is guaranteed that one or both of them is set in stone to be developed into an operational product. It's likely, but not definite.


What's the play here? Compound coax for scout/light attack(S-97) presumably for the Army? and tiltrotor for naval and Marine transport(MV-75 and V-22)? Potentially that quad-tiltrotor for the Army as well if they decide to procure it? I guess all that's really left in terms of capability for Chinese helicopters would be basically the AHL project which seems to be in some sort of limbo.

There's no particular play.

These are both new and fairly exotic next gen propulsion arrangements for next gen rotorcraft. It makes sense to develop technology demonstrators of an appropriate size (and with sufficiently available powerplants) to verify their configurations as part overall next gen rotorcraft efforts, likely with an eye that one or both of them could have applications for next gen utility and attack rotorcraft.
 

Blitzo

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I specified utility and attack.


Z-9 (nor Z-19) is not particularly a utility or attack helicopter, it is at best a light utility and light attack/armed recon helicopter.

If you want to suggest that a next generation Z-9 replacement could be embodied by either of these two rotorcraft in their existing size, I certainly agree with you. But for utility and attack (Z-20, and Z-21, Z-10 partly) these two rotorcraft as is would be undersized.
 

Tomboy

Senior Member
Registered Member
Based on Cute Orca's knowledge on the matter, the AHL project (which likely consists of China doing it alone right now) is progressing rapidly:

View attachment 158882
I suspect the bottleneck here would be the engine, to my knowledge the 5000kW turboshaft(AES-500?) is still under development. I expect the 5000kW turboshaft would also be used with the full scale tiltrotors and the Blue Whale.
 

sunnymaxi

Major
Registered Member
According to Cute Orca, the AHL project (which likely consists of China doing it alone right now) is progressing rapidly:

View attachment 158882
Changhe Aircraft Industries Group is the same company, who actually working on AHL project. they even applied for approval for the construction of a heavy-duty helicopter research and production base..

there is one more, 20 tons heavy lifter helicopter project, officially reveled in last year air show..
 

mack8

Junior Member
Changhe Aircraft Industries Group is the same company, who actually working on AHL project. they even applied for approval for the construction of a heavy-duty helicopter research and production base..

there is one more, 20 tons heavy lifter helicopter project, officially reveled in last year air show..
Was there a model shown of the 20 ton helicopter, and would you have an image by any chance?
 

Tomboy

Senior Member
Registered Member
Changhe Aircraft Industries Group is the same company, who actually working on AHL project. they even applied for approval for the construction of a heavy-duty helicopter research and production base..

there is one more, 20 tons heavy lifter helicopter project, officially reveled in last year air show..
Is that 20 ton payload or 20 ton MTOW. Pardon my question, I have not been following helicopter dev closely.
 
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