The Mysterious PLAAF's H8 & H9 Stealth Bomber... Rumour...? Reality...?

FarkTypeSoldier

Junior Member
Hey guys,

Saw a news of H8 & H9's news on this military programme by Phoenix TV.
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(Chinese programme, sorry) the news starts from 5mins 28secs but it seems Li Xiaoning's comments are either censored or due to youtube bug...

Although there are news but so far, they are either fan arts or images of B2 Spirit or X-47B... Judging from the revealing of J-20, how soon could either H8 or H9 or both to appear.

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(Chinese site, sorry)

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OR

It could also be
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What's your view?

Cheers
 
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delft

Brigadier
You don't invite all those big shots for something as technical as the beginning of flight testing, unless, as with J-20, you want to make some kind of demonstration.
 

Deino

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
I'm more interested in seeing the stealth JH-7B/JH-8. But eh...

Me too ... but regarding the H-8 and H-9 I think - and following that topic for quite some time - these are all failed or faked.

Following what I found, efforts develop an inproved started with the H-6I (actually flew) and later or in parallel the H-8. As far as I know there were several concepts with four or even six (not 100% sure on that) with different engines under consideration but nothing ever happened.

Some time agao a friend of mine and I "drew" - better to admit, he drew and I tried to develop with him - a set of side-profiles of all the projects based on the H-6.

Anyway a very interesting topic.

Cheers, Deino


PS: again, critics are welcome.
 

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Blitzo

Lieutenant General
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I think the H-8/H-9 or whatever is... unsubstantiated as well, not because it doesn't necessarily exist, but there's just not enough information out there. A number of posters have hinted at it just hiding behidn the veils and I'm holding out a faint hope for it to emerge sometime before 2020... more so than the JH-7B at least.

I feel a four engined bomber in the class of the B-2 is very possible for the chinese aerospace industry to produce, they just need more experience with building large aircraft. They have shown competancy in stealth, FBW, aerodynamics, mission related avionics (like AESA and optics)... I feel a large stealthy bomber -- it doesn't have to be intercontinental -- with capacity for 12 cruise missiles or an equivalent amout of PGMs, and internal EW pods and an AESA for electronic attack... will be a worthy investment as the PLAAF expands its horizons. Such a bomber must have a high loiter time and doesn't need to be very fast.
Basically something along the lines of the USAF's next generation bomber programme.
 

Blitzo

Lieutenant General
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I thought the USAF's next generation bomber would have hypersonic capabilities?

Nope, the latest suggests a much enlarged X-47B, a subsonic, large, penetrating and loitering platform with EW as important as the hard-strike capability.

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X-47Bstealth-bomber.jpg


The USAF is looking to get 80-100 of these to replace the B-52s... I doubt they will be able to afford that many, espicially if the project's cost inflates (and probably will with previous track records), and the 2018 deadline looks prone to delay... But such a platform will also be good for the PLAAF as their horizons are widening and will look to station bombers more inland and strike targets in the second island chain and beyond...

It doesn't look to be as large as the B-2, but still quite large in its own right. The PLAAF have the companies and institutes with the capability to build a similar aircraft but it's a matter of money and need. I think the need will grow with coming years, and hopefully the PLAAF have already invested in some technologies of a future, regional/long range bomber.
 
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challenge

Banned Idiot
according to aviation week, russia is debeloping next gen. of stealth bomber, the bomber resemble B-2,except it use 2 engine rather than 4.
chinese bomber,likely resemble refine version of RAF vulcan.
china aerospace factory ,to date still un able to process a large single pieces of composite material.
 

delft

Brigadier
Such large compact aircraft, i.e. without a long fuselage and without tail surfaces, are ideal for the use of fiber reinforced plastic rather than aluminum main structure, because that way you can save a lot of weight and so carry more fuel.
Developing such an aircraft is a pretty big job, not to be undertaken lightly.
It is probable that designs are made in preparation and perhaps rumors about them are the basis for these H-8 and H9 stories.
If the decision to develop such an aircraft has been taken already we may expect serious news in say five years time.
 
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