Bad news: China's engines are approaching the level the U.S. had 20 years ago.
Good news: U.S. engines have largely stagnated over the past two decades.
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- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
Good news: U.S. engines have largely stagnated over the past two decades.
That’s like having the plane / launch vehicle redesign the missile?
Behind on turbofan engines to be specific.
China's flown the world's first rotating detonation engine back in 2022 well before the US' last year. This 2022 RDE was just a publicly disclosed, university research program and its maiden flight. Nothing secret. Could have been flying RDEs with classified programs for far longer than that.
China flew oblique detonation engines before the US has even flown its first. In fact the US only theorised on the oblique detonation engine and only flew pulse detonation engines way before China but this was wayyyyyy before China. Still, pulse detonation is like a lawn mower piston engine compared to rotating and oblique detonation engines.
China's scramjets might also be ahead (speed, flight parameters, intake design and speed ranges, time of total flight etc) although the US flew scramjets decades before China and anyone else.
Combined cycle engines I'd also put China ahead having flown TRCC and RBCC engines while the US hasn't gotten them out of the lab yet.
Out of all these aerospace engines, turbofans are easily the most complex, flexible and demanding. Which is also partly why China's so behind on these vs US and even UK.
Commercial high bypass Turbofan Engines*
UK is not even trying in military sector but yeah recently they have joined the hands with Japanese for next gen military engine for GCAP.
Fair enough. For military turbofans at least we do have variable cycle coming along. WS-15 which is unrivaled by any except US. Russia's own Izd. 30 program for super high thrust turbofan is traveling slower and their variable cycle is unknown. Dont think they have the funds or the sizable talent pool they once had in a bygone era. Many of those are surely working for the European and American programs unfortunately. Where China has the population size to shake off brain drain, Russia doesn't have to the same extent.
As for commercial, well we can only say we have completed WS-20. CJ-1000 is still in final testing and manufacturing. CJ-2000 is ambitious enough to have caught up in core tech, hollow ceramic blades etc. All of these leave everyone behind except US, UK, France and Russia.
I trust the military sector turbofans will still enjoy the lion share of funding and talent. Until there's an urgency to become totally self dependent on civil aviation engines, they will only keep it chugging along at a decent pace but nothing comparable to how quickly those military turbofans have caught up to leading edge.
a list of known High bypass Turbofan Engine projects..
1. WS-20 entered in the full scale production.
2. WS-XX a 25 tons class High bypass Engine is in final stages.
3. WS-35 announced in April this year.. most likely a 25-35 tons category class machine for military applications..
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maybe you don't read what we post on Engine thread.. there is an urgency to become fully self-reliance in civilian aviation Engines.
this is why AECC Shanghai received largest ever strategic funding from China's top 12 heavyweight in June this year. it it said to be the biggest ever investment in Aero Engine in last two decades. i just erased the name investment groups but posted the screen-shot.
1. CJ-1000A has entered in final stage. testing phase with C919. then certification for small scale production.
2. CJ-2000 passed demonstrator stage in 2023 now become CJ-2000A and already have couple of prototypes. full scale testing underway. CMC is just one small thing. this Engine have many surprises. highest number of components/parts have made with 3D printed and composite. AECC explicitly said many times, CJ-2000 will be one of the most fuel efficient Engine globally.
AECC official website has updated.. this is the front page of their website.
France is not even in competition right now..
Is CJ-2000A going to be a GTF? Major western manufacturers like RR coming up with stuff like Ultrafan, GTF technology has probably matured long enough that reliability won't be a issue like the PW1000G anymore. I fail to see how a conventional turbofan is going to match up with Ultrafan and other upcoming products.
Harbin won the contract of Geared turbofan drive system for sampling back in November, 2024..
AECC Shanghai didn't reveal anything officially but talking about high fuel efficiency of CJ-2000 all the time.
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Interesting, IMO at this point maybe they could consider making a downsized CJ-2000 to replace the CJ-1000A in the 2030s to compete with the full Ultrafan lineup.
The CJ-2000A is turning out to be a pretty darn advanced machine. Incredible how far they've come in just 2 decades or less.