Rumoured Projects & Likelihood Thereof

Tomboy said:

I wonder if we could upgrade to a 3 given that SOYO just hinted about the existence of such an aircraft today in his post about the radiator arrangement on WJ-10 nacelle.

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IMO the PLA do really need something to replace the old Y-7s

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I'd be reluctant to put it at "3" for now, since it's only SOYO who has mentioned this on Weibo thus far, and that he mentioned that as a "guess". Whether he meant his "guess" as a "I believe that there might be a project on this, based on my deduction on the auxiliary air intake differences of the WJ-10 seen on the Y-15 versus the AEP400 seen on the revived MA700/other engines" or "I did find some papers/documents indicating that this project is in some kind of progress" is unclear to me, so I'd choose to be cautious for the time being.

sunnymaxi said:

why not MA-700 to replace older Y-7 ? another turboprop clean-sheet design is a colossal waste of money and time.

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Refer to @Tomboy's reply.

Besides, the C-295 has already proven itself in the recent CSAR mission for the downed F-15 pilots inside Iran (also pointed out by SOYO), hence I believe that China could also be looking into the needs for this kind of tactical airlifter (for similar CSAR missions in Taiwan or in the Xizang Plateau, alongside other missions). In addition, it's already long in the tooth for the Y-7 family (which is based on the old An-26 from the early-1970s) still in PLA service to be retired and be replaced by this point.

Tomboy said:

Really depends on what they actually want, if they want a true tactical airlifter, MA-700 will not be sufficient as it is not designed for rough/unprep and short strips takeoffs and landings which is something you'll probably want on a frontline tactical transport, neither does it have a rear ramp like C-27J/C-295 which is also pretty important for paradropping and airlifting. On the other hand, if the PLA just wants a maritime patrol aircraft, VIP/troop transport or utility, MA-700 should be more than enough.

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see this interesting piece of information.

Xian AIC going to invest 329 million RMB in regional aircraft sector.. looks like MA-700 program accelerated for certification and maybe for something else as well.


@ACuriousPLAFan

sunnymaxi said:

see this interesting piece of information.

Xian AIC going to invest 329 million RMB in regional aircraft sector.. looks like MA-700 program accelerated for certification and maybe for something else as well.

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@ACuriousPLAFan

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That's most likely referring to the MA700, which is indeed a regional aircraft.

On one hand, what has been subtly hinted/speculated at by SOYO is a C-27J/C-295-counterpart, which is a tactical airlifter of military nature from the very beginning, with (mainly) military-exclusive features like a cargo bay and a cargo ramp door. On the other hand, the MA700 is not known as a military aircraft and has often been considered a counterpart to the ATR72 and Q400 instead, which also meant that the MA700 isn't designed for rugged field operations under combat scenarios in the first place.

So, no - I don't think that the MA700 will have any further developments/variants into a Sino-C-295/C-27J if this speculated/hypothetical project does exist.

Speaking of which - SOYO posted this illustration (likely taken from an academic paper/patent document), which seems to depict some kind of fairings and structures (which are typically seen on various special mission aircraft) placed across different parts of the aircraft fuselage:



In the meantime, SOYO has noted that the airframe's outline above is actually taken from the Air China Cargo website's page on the A330-243P2F (Passenger-To-Freighter), of which the airframe's outline has been seen several times in academic papers and/or patent documents:




This, per my understanding, is that the authors of the academic papers and/or patent documents are merely using this Air China Cargo A330P2F's outline as bases for their illustrations on whatever special mission aircraft that is being discussed upon in those papers and/or documents, rather than specifically indicating that whatever special mission aircraft studied/illustrated in those papers and/or documents will be utilizing an A330-sized airframe as its/their platform(s).

Of course, I should note that this may or may not mean anything, or whether this is related to the previously discussed common platform aircraft or not. Hence, please note that I'm posting these here just for the record.