[Video] China’s brand new military airlifter makes first flight

January 26, 2013 China

David Cenciotti

Coded 20001, China’s large military transport aircraft designed Y-20 made its first flight from Yanliang flight test center on Jan. 26.

Based on the CCTV footage, the brand new turbojet, a hybrid between the U.S. C-17, the Airbus A400M Atlas four-engine turboprop, and the nose section the Antonov An-70 performed a short test flight with the extended landing gear, before landing back.

Image credit: goneless via Alert5

About David Cenciotti

David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

Nic Iro says:

January 26, 2013 at 5:18 PM

Seems like it has at least power for take off (empty!) and even needs spoilers to brake at landing. Maybe they have the technology to make proper engines.
Jeroen van Veenendaal says:

January 26, 2013 at 6:17 PM

Looks like a happy dog. I’d take a closer look at the tail if I were the Chinese, it wiggles a lot @ 0.35!
Otto says:

January 26, 2013 at 9:28 PM

Looks like the Chinese have built their version of a C-141A!