H-20 bomber (with H-X, JH-XX)

Team Blue

Junior Member
Registered Member
I question this statement, how much aerodynamic control does a bomber really need in the age of LGBs?
A lot of warfare is about maximizing the edge one holds. Bombers probably wouldn't make the difference between victory but they're one more additional option if other means fail.
 

BoraTas

Captain
Registered Member
What is the expected MTOW of H-20? It is widely accepted that it will have 4 engines. If those 4 engines are non-afterburning WS-15s then we are talking about a massive bomber. WS-15 wet thrust is expected to be around 20 tons. In modern low-bypass turbofans, dry thrust is usually around two thirds of wet thrust. 13 tons would be a nice estimate for the dry thrust of WS-15. Having 4 WS-15s means having 52 tons of thrust. Modern subsonic bombers have a thrust-to-weight ratio between 0.2-0.32. We are talking about a bomber up to 260 tons!!! This would make it the second largest bomber ever deployed. If a flying wing of this size only has 20 tons of payload capacity then its range should be the highest ever by a long shot. Is China planning for a platform that can strike CONUS? Such a platform would shake the geopolitical landscape.
 

silentlurker

Junior Member
Registered Member
A lot of warfare is about maximizing the edge one holds. Bombers probably wouldn't make the difference between victory but they're one more additional option if other means fail.
??? I was specifcally questionjng the concept of extra aerodynamic controls on a bomber, not bombers as a whole
 

latenlazy

Brigadier
What is the expected MTOW of H-20? It is widely accepted that it will have 4 engines. If those 4 engines are non-afterburning WS-15s then we are talking about a massive bomber. WS-15 wet thrust is expected to be around 20 tons. In modern low-bypass turbofans, dry thrust is usually around two thirds of wet thrust. 13 tons would be a nice estimate for the dry thrust of WS-15. Having 4 WS-15s means having 52 tons of thrust. Modern subsonic bombers have a thrust-to-weight ratio between 0.2-0.32. We are talking about a bomber up to 260 tons!!! This would make it the second largest bomber ever deployed. If a flying wing of this size only has 20 tons of payload capacity then its range should be the highest ever by a long shot. Is China planning for a platform that can strike CONUS? Such a platform would shake the geopolitical landscape.
The engines will be non afterburning WS-10s.
 

manqiangrexue

Brigadier
The WS-10 has roughly the same dry thrust as the B-2's engines. So you would expect a bomber made with that to have similar characteristics. Once you establish that the H-20 uses the WS-10 it follows naturally that it is likely a quad engine since otherwise you don't get a meaningful payload over what a dual-engine J-16 would get already.
I seem to remember somewhere, although unreliable as a source, that the dry thrust for WS-10X is 89kN and it's higher as a percentage of the wet thrust than AL-31X because the WS-10 was derived from the CFM core.
 
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