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China’s new military transport plane exposed. And it looks like a C-17, An-70, A400M hybrid. December 24, 2012

Posted by David Cenciotti in : China , trackback

Posted by Alert5 today, the following image shows the first photographs of China’s new four-engine military airlifter.

The large military transport aircraft is allegedly designed Y-20 and, nose aside, its shape is almost identical to that shown in a series of artist’s impressions that have appeared on Chinese media outlets.

Indeed, the aircraft depicted in the detailed renderings you can find in this post seems to be a turbojet clone of the Airbus A400M Atlas four-engine turboprop, whereas the one depicted on the ground in the new pictures features a nose section inspired by the Antonov An-70.

Actually, inputs from several other aircraft types, including the Boeing C-17, can be found in the Y-20. In July 2009, a former Boeing employee was convicted of selling secret C-17 technical details to China.

It looks like an AWACS version of the Y-20 is also being envisaged.

 

 

 

 

 

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1584085139 Simon Wolfers

    Quite a MF of a hybrid though.D’ya think it’s safe? ;-)

    • Aeffesstoo

      Should be, it’s probably built with the best American technology. But then again, it’s really built with a Chinese interpretation of the best American technology so who knows?

  • http://twitter.com/WoodmanPaul paul woodman

    Why would they need that much plane for an AWACS ?

  • http://twitter.com/Kamododragoon Nicky Chaleunphone

    Yeap, Looks like the Chinese crossed a C-17 with an A400M to produce a hybrid. It looks like the Chinese have been inbreeding aircraft again

  • http://twitter.com/FlightDreamz Kevin

    Wonder how good the engines are as that’s still a weak point for China (they’re catching up fast in aviation technology though – too fast)!

    • darragh scully

      I think your confused Kev. These planes use the same engines as commercial airliners. The Diplomat has a good outline of this here (http://thediplomat.com/2012/12/09/the-long-pole-in-the-tent-chinas-military-jet-engines/?all=true)

      My facts which I shared with the Diplomat suggest something similar in that they say its only 2 years after hefty investment where the Chinese can produce the super alloys that will handle the high G forces and turns where as my source stated it would be 20 years before they have the super allows needed before they can even start working on the machining techniques to produce an engine similar to the f135 or the saturn 41. If you follow the the avi then you know that they allready are producing a fourth gen or maybe even a 4.5 gen fighter engine.

      Given the sentence of only 17 years for the perpetrator of this crime its hard to say just how much data he passed on, seen as though it was so long ago you have to assume that this will not be up to scratch. However China has a pretty reliable commercial airline pipeline. However the engine on this is apparently the D30 which is a very powerful russian engine. Probably the ku of the kp version.

      China is changing its defence posture.

  • vlhc

    When all transport planes look alike, I guess you have to invent the new concept of “hybrid” to perpetuate the delusion of having a unique design yourself, right?

  • big al

    its not like they invented the machine,its old technology im not impressed,they are copy cats with an unlimited supply of money thanks to america.i am unimpressed,they steal and buy too much technology ,steal from usa,{silicon chink valley}in the peoples republic of california,and buy from the russians or israel.they lack innovation,they have to wait till everyone does it first,making them the masters at reverse technology.fuk em,now can they drive it,no one at sea is safe.lol…

  • http://www.facebook.com/ernesto.castillo.1257 Ernesto Castillo

    Yeah, sure…Every time a new chinese plane appears, they’re copying….Now it’s an HYBRID, they’re copying both A400M and C-17…

    The old proverbe -if it works, use it!- doesn’t seem to aply here, for if the chinese make a cargo plane that LOOKS LIKE A CARGO PLANE, they’re copyng previous cargo planes designs…Is the same old story of the Cold War, when everything russians made ” they copied from the West. Pathetic…I suppose those who write this considerer themselves aviation experts….

    This plane does NOT copy C-17 any more than the Globemaster “copies” C-5 Galaxy. They just have the same basic function, thus they look the same…



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