From Henri K blog. there is no doubt anymore they are developing boom type refuelling
AVIC develops the Y-20 tanker version
I
f, two years ago in 2016, we had only a , the recent elements made public by the Chinese aeronautic manufacturer leave little doubt about the existence of such a program.
Indeed, in a music video broadcast by the Chinese group on April 27 appeared a brief passage where we see a miniaturized model of Y-20, with on the side of the staff who worked around a kind of simulator for mothership with a rigid pole.
We also see a little further in the video that Chinese technicians seem to be analyzing images, first on Probe & Drug supply (also called "nanny") with an American F / A-18D, then of what appears to be the simulation of an operator's position, which controls on the one hand the rigid boom supply (also called "Flying Boom") with a new J-20 fighter, and on the other two other refueling to cart with the J-10S.
So this is the first time that we have concrete material to confirm the fact that the AVIC is actually developing a rigid pole refueling system, to be able to integrate it into a tanker plane, derived from its aircraft transport Y-20, also in development.
In sum, if all of these elements belong to the same program, it is highly likely that the Y-20 tanker version, probably called Y-20U, will have three supply points including a rigid boom.
The development of a tanker aircraft based on the Y-20 is revealed in a video of AVIC (Images: AVIC)
For the moment, we do not know the exact progress made by the 603 Xi'an Institute, which should be responsible for the governance of the program since it is in this consulting firm of the AVIC group that the Y-20 transport aircraft and current H-6U / H-6DU tanker aircraft are designed.
But in a patent filed by one of his teams in October 2014, which concerns a ground test device to simulate the movements of the aircraft supplied by a rigid pole, it is clearly written that "the development of the device of Rigid Boom Refueling is in the functional prototype testing stage "(当前 我国 硬式 空 加油 过程 功能 功能 功能 阶段 阶段 阶段 阶段 阶段 阶段 阶段 阶段 阶段 阶段 阶段 阶段 阶段 阶段 阶段 阶段 阶段 阶段 阶段,,,,,,,,,,,, Western countries on associated technologies "(受 西方 国家 技术 严重 封锁, 硬式 空中 加油 相关 试验 技术 无 无 无 公无 资料 可 询.).
And in another patent filed by another Shanghai subsidiary of the AVIC group shows that a guidance system by optical signaling, dedicated to the control of supply with rigid boom, is finished developing in 2015.
All this suggests that the program of the new Chinese tanker, based on the design of the Y-20, could have reached the stage of the industrial prototype today. If this is justified, it can very well explain
, which was brought to perform new static tests.
The research on the publication of R & D documents, around the single keyword "refueling in flight", seems to come to comfort also this estimate of timing. For example, the number of publications on the subject has been steadily increasing since 1989, reaching a peak in 2015 and 2016. This could be a pre-study phase between 2000 and 2010, at about the same time that the Y-20 program is launched, then an official development phase from 2011 until now.
Note that the subject of refueling in flight between drones, or drones, is also part of the figures.
Once completed, this new Y-20 tanker should be able to carry up to 60 tons of kerosene, enough to supply twelve J-10A / B / C within a radius of 2,200 km. Although this is not an ideal solution for a tanker, the natural limit of the platform requires, but it is in the short and medium term the best solution "Stop Gap" for the Chinese army, as well as the IL- 78 Midas imported from Russia, but with the advantage that it is entirely Chinese-Chinese.
