Y-20 is outdated, China's new strategic transport aircraft seems like an alien product

October 7th news, a technical paper from China shows that a new heavy transport aircraft using a blended wing body design is being developed, which may completely revolutionize the appearance of traditional air transport platforms.

This concept aircraft, which seems like alien technology, not only completely breaks away from conventional aerodynamic structures, but also far surpasses the Y-20 in performance targets, aiming to create a true intercontinental strategic transport platform.

Compared with the currently operational Y-20, the new transport aircraft has achieved a level jump in almost all indicators.

Its maximum takeoff weight is close to 472 tons, twice that of the Y-20; the maximum payload reaches 120 tons, and the full load range reaches 6500 kilometers, far exceeding the Y-20's 4500 kilometers.

More importantly, it has the ability to take off from a 2600-meter prepared runway, and even can take off from a 4000-meter altitude plateau at low load, which is of great significance for strategic mobile deployment in western China and Central Asia.

Visually, the aircraft completely abandons the traditional transport plane's "tube plus wings" model, adopting a fully integrated lifting body configuration similar to the U.S. next-generation BWB platform.

V-shaped tail, swept wing sections, engine placement on the wings, and upward curved wingtips, combined with these designs, make the entire aircraft have better radar stealth characteristics and significantly improve aerodynamic efficiency.

It is said that the cruise speed target of this aircraft is Mach 0.85, which is close to commercial jet airliners, and there are few rivals in the current large transport aircraft field.

Currently, this future transport aircraft is still in the stage of technical verification and modeling optimization. However, based on a large number of comparative analyses and performance simulations, it is unlikely to be just theoretical speculation.

With the experience accumulated in the Y-20 project, the Chinese aviation industry is making a bid for a truly fourth-generation strategic transport aircraft.

Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1845402862002192/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself.