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China has taken delivery of the first two Xian Y-20 strategic airlifters, according to photos published on social media. They show the aircraft in full People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) markings at an undisclosed airbase. However, the serial numbers on the aircraft (11051 and 11052) indicate that they are assigned to the PLAAF’s 4th Transport Division, 12th Air Regiment based at Qionglai in Sichuan Province. The division comprises of three regiments based in the PLA’s Western Theatre Command, operating the Shaanxi Y-7, Y-8 and Y-9 transports. The Y-20 is a high-wing, T-tail four-engine design capable of strategic airlift. It...

China's Xian Y-20 military airlifter is expected to finish flight tests and be put into service with the People's Liberation Army this year, according to a report from the official Communist Party newspaper People's Daily. People's Daily reported the assessment cames from Xu Yongling, a military expert who said the test flight period for large aircraft is generally between three and five years and since no bottlenecks occurred during development or manufacturing of the Y-20, it will be put into use this year. The Y-20, designated as the Kunpeng, performed its first flight in 2013. It has a cargo capacity...

China's First Heavy Transporter Y-20 Takes Off The prototype of China's first indigenously-developed heavy transport aircraft, Y-20, takes off from an unidentified airport for its first test flight Saturday afternoon, January 26, 2013. [Photo: Xinhua] China began test flights Saturday for the prototype of its first indigenously-developed heavy transport aircraft, Y-20, a craft similar in size to the Russian IL-76 and somewhat smaller than the U.S. C-17. The plane took off at around 2:00pm from an airport in Yanliang, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, according to CCTV News. The Y-20 program is part of an effort to develop an indigenous long-range...

Limited Liftoff Looming: Y-20 Transport Prepares for 1st Test Flight While China's stealth aircraft prototypes may get all the buzz, the Y-20 offers new military operational possibilities. In 2011 and 2012, China flight-tested stealth fighter prototypes developed by Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (J-20) and Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (J-31). In 2013, Xi’an Aircraft Corporation (XAC) will look to get into the new aircraft game by flight-testing a prototype of the Y-20, an indigenously-developed large transport aircraft similar in size to the Russian IL-76 and somewhat smaller than the U.S. C-17. The Y-20 program is part of an effort to develop an indigenous...

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