China's transport, tanker & heavy lift aircraft

Deino

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
Are you saying that this image could be a photo shop?
Even if the image may be old, the aircraft seems to fit Y-20 profile. Not a C-17. Not an il-76.


Guys ... may I ask, what's up?? This is 100% for sure a Y-20, there's no doubt, nothing to question ... I don't get it.


Hi Hendrik_2000,

Do you think the previous picture which Deino stated as a Y20 with a open engine cowling on a tarmac is actually the Y20B with WS20?


It was a mistake. When I saw that image first I thought it might be a WS-20 but after I've seen better one i higher resolution provided by Jane's it is clearly only an open engine cowling.
 

Xizor

Captain
Registered Member
Not many military aircrafts have winglets. Why is that? Commercial aircrafts have to save fuel. Is there any reason military ones don't?
Because winglets are very tricky to design. The performance gain that winglets give are not that significant( they primarily reduce the tip vortex by "pulling it back" along the curved aspect of the winglet). However, this gain in lift area (that could've been lost without a winglet) is countered by the weight of the winglets itself.

Winglets are not easy to design. It makes more sense in civilian aircrafts as the demand for fuel economy is really high.

Sure the C-17 has winglets but that's just the spillover of the engineering resources created by Boeing company.

Tbh, engines have a bigger role to play regarding China. If China can get extremely efficient engines then we may wonder and discuss about winglets.
 

xyqq

Junior Member
Registered Member
Based on the following painting recently posted by the Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC), it is possible that the new WS-20 engine on Y-20B has 24 wider curved fan blades (likely made of composite material):

WS-20-poster.jpg

Instead of 32 narrower straight fan blades in the original design:

WS-20-14ton.jpg

This explains why it takes so long for Y-20B to make her maiden flight after WS-20 was put on the IL-76 testbed:

WS-20-takeoff.jpg
 
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Xizor

Captain
Registered Member
Why can't they stop pussyfooting on the WS-20 and just release some damn images. It's not as if the WS-20 is the greatest engine to see the day.

All this is a bit too much.
 

latenlazy

Brigadier
Based on the following painting recently posted by the Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC), it is possible that the new WS-20 engine on Y-20B has 24 wider curved fan blades (likely made of composite material):

View attachment 65829

Instead of 32 narrower straight fan blades in the original design:

View attachment 65830

This explains why it takes so long for Y-20B to make her maiden flight after WS-20 was put on the IL-76 testbed:

View attachment 65831
I think that doodle is supposed to be the CJ-1000 not the WS-20.
 

Blitzo

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
Why can't they stop pussyfooting on the WS-20 and just release some damn images. It's not as if the WS-20 is the greatest engine to see the day.

All this is a bit too much.

Opsec in the new age of great power competition.
It's no longer 2010 anymore, or even 2008.


As for that picture, it seems like this is the original undoctored photo. The person had specifically doctored only the engines alone.

original.jpg





However, it seems like everyone is being very very cautious in not wanting to release the real images.
In particular, the new aircraft is in yellow primer it seems.

My understanding is that the thing has definitely flown, and everyone with opinions worth following are in agreement of it, and there are pictures available of it somewhere in someone's memory stick, but they're just not going to release it right now so close to its maiden flight.
 
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