With the development of China's economy and the gradual enhancement of its scientific and technological strength, China's aviation industry began to provide new aircraft types for aviation military transport troops. As early as the 1960s, China's military had realized the importance of air military transportation and put forward the decision of "building helicopters and transport planes". Under the guidance of this policy, Yun -7 and Yun -8 military transport planes have been successfully developed and equipped with troops in batches.
Yun -7 transport aircraft is a short-range and medium-range twin-engine turboprop transport aircraft developed and produced by Xi 'an Aircraft Industry Company. /kloc-0 made its first flight on February 25th, 1970, and/kloc-0 completed its test flight in 1984. It is 23.7 meters long and 8.55 meters high, with a maximum takeoff weight of 2 1.8 tons.
Yun -8 medium-range four-engine multi-purpose transport aircraft is the main transport model of China Air Force. Developed by Shaanxi Aircraft Manufacturing Company, 1975 made its first flight. Its take-off weight is 6 1 ton. Its body adopts an all-metal semi-hard shell structure and can carry 96 fully armed soldiers or 82 paratroopers at a time. Yun -8 transport aircraft has been developed one after another and modified nearly 30 times.
However, the above models are medium and light transport aircraft after all. In order to meet the needs of long-distance air transport, China imported 20 large-scale Il -76 transport planes from Russia, forming a certain aviation military transport capacity, which is mainly used for the mobilization of troops and equipment and the emergency transport of relief materials.
China's national defense policy and security situation determine that China will not engage in a large-scale war far from home. However, in a relatively peaceful environment, the air transport capacity of China Air Force must meet the requirements of military logistics support and rapid response, such as actively supporting national defense and economic construction and defending the territorial airspace of the motherland. Therefore, the operational scope of the China Air Force and the functional scope of the Chinese armed forces should reach at least 4,000 kilometers, and the corresponding personnel, materials and equipment should be transported quickly.
According to the demand analysis, China needs more than 100 large military transport aircraft, and the main types of military air transport in China up to now (20 14) are Yun -8 medium-range transport aircraft and a small number of Il -76 large transport aircraft. The air transport capacity is seriously insufficient, which can neither meet the needs of modern wars, nor is it far from enough to deal with emergencies. The warring areas of modern warfare are increasingly vast, and the pace of war is accelerating. Therefore, all countries in the world are vigorously strengthening the rapid response and long-distance delivery capabilities of their own troops, so as to quickly transport troops and weapons to areas in urgent need, control the situation, and buy time for subsequent troop reinforcements and launches; Or suddenly send troops to the defensive area where the opponent's key points are weak, giving the opponent a sudden and fatal blow. Compared with other modes of transportation, the biggest advantage of air transportation is its high speed. The cruising speed of modern jet transport aircraft is about 800 km/h, and turboprop transport aircraft also reaches 500 km/h, which is several times or even dozens of times higher than other means of transportation. In addition, air transportation is not affected by topography and hydrological conditions. Air transport can cross many obstacles regarded as natural disasters by other modes of transport and transport people and materials to areas in urgent need. Therefore, all military powers attach great importance to the development of air transport capacity, especially transport aircraft, in order to gain the upper hand in future wars.
Large military transport aircraft generally refers to the military transport aircraft whose maximum takeoff weight exceeds100t. Large military transport aircraft are divided into two categories: strategy and tactics according to their uses. The range of modern large transport aircraft has reached thousands or even tens of thousands of kilometers. After refueling in the air, it can be transported around the world. The equipment quantity, technical level and carrying efficiency of large military transport aircraft have become an important symbol to measure whether a country has the ability of "strategic air force".
According to the above situation, what China Air Transport Force needs most is a large transport plane, which can transport most of the army's weapons and equipment, with a range of not less than 4,000 kilometers, good short-distance take-off and landing performance, and can take off and land on unpaved runways. China must have its own military transport aircraft with similar C- 17 level and performance, otherwise China will bear great military pressure and encounter greater difficulties in future wars. As the strategic equipment of our army, large military transport aircraft plays an irreplaceable role in improving the equipment status of our army, realizing national defense modernization, safeguarding national security and accomplishing the great cause of the reunification of the motherland. In order to make up for the shortage of air transportation, China Air Force used to borrow planes from civil aviation and even logistics companies to transport goods. Therefore, Yun -20 is of great significance to improving the level of logistics. In order to adapt to the characteristics of modern warfare, such as sudden and rapid, and realize the rapid deployment of armed forces and the rapid delivery of equipment, we must rely on the strategic air transport capacity of large transport aircraft. In 2006, the large aircraft project was officially included in the national medium-and long-term scientific and technological development plan. As early as 1993, AVIC xifei started the preliminary demonstration of large transport aircraft and invested 3 billion yuan in preparation. 1997, xifei company proposed to the military to develop large military transport aircraft. In 200 1 year, xifei company put forward the strategic plan of building a new xifei, that is, aiming at forming the development and production capacity of 200-ton large aircraft, greatly improving the aviation manufacturing technology and processing capacity, and realizing a major leap from the development and production of 100-ton aircraft to the 200-ton aircraft.
In 2000, after Israel terminated its cooperation with China in early warning aircraft under the pressure of the United States, the central government made up its mind to develop early warning aircraft. At this time, an urgent problem appeared. Large early warning aircraft need large aircraft as a platform, so the central government ordered Xifei to develop a large transport aircraft that can be used as a platform for large early warning aircraft. At that time, it was required to be based on Il -76, which was technically more advanced than Il -76MD. Xifei's technical reserve played a key role at this time, and took out the overall design in a very short time. Because of China's vast airspace, even if the early warning aircraft are collocated at high and low levels, dozens of large-scale early warning aircraft are needed (some of them are on duty for combat readiness and some are used as reserve machines). Because of some problems in the subsequent design, Xifei turned its attention to the traditional partner Antonov Design Bureau of Ukraine. After obtaining technical support from Ukraine, Xifei solved the design problem of the Universiade. It can be said that Yun -20 large transport aircraft came into being under the urgent requirements of the early warning aircraft platform.
During the two sessions of the National People's Congress in 2004, Liu Daxiang, an academician of China Academy of Engineering, a famous aviation power expert and now the vice director of the Science and Technology Committee of China Aviation Industry Corporation I, submitted a proposal on developing large aircraft as soon as possible.
At the Zhuhai Air Show in June, 2004+June, 2004+10/October, AVIC-1 suddenly released an unprecedented transport model. From the appearance, it does not belong to Yun -7 and Yun -8 families, and has no similarity with any kind of transport aircraft in China. This kind of aircraft adopts the layout of single wing and double turbofan engine on the cantilever, which is somewhat similar to the Il -76 large transport aircraft in general. Officially, the aircraft is called WJ jet trainer, but from its design characteristics, it belongs to large and medium-sized transport aircraft. The model design of the aircraft is quite similar to that of Yun -20, which proves that AVIC has started to develop large transport aircraft at the latest in 2004. At the beginning of 2006, "developing large aircraft" was written into the national medium-and long-term scientific and technological development plan and the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" as a national decision. In February, 2007, at the executive meeting in the State Council, China approved in principle the establishment of a major scientific and technological project for the development of large aircraft.
In March 2007, China announced the launch of the large aircraft project, which is located in Xi and Shanghai. Among them, more than 50% of the design and manufacturing of Dyke and all the design, development and manufacturing of Universiade were completed in Shaanxi.
On June 20, 2007, the large-scale transport aircraft project (Yun -20) was formally established, code-named Project 072.
On August 22, 2007, Jane's Defense Weekly published an article introducing that Xi 'an Aircraft Industry Group has determined the plan to manufacture heavy transport aircraft. The British Daily believes that the aircraft is likely to be built on the basis of the Il -76MD aircraft, but it will have better carrying capacity and a more powerful engine, and its size is likely to be close to the C- 17 strategic transport aircraft produced by Boeing. China Aerodynamics Research and Development Center is developing Gao Han Dobby turbofan engine. This kind of engine will provide power for large aircraft. In addition, the center is still studying carbon fiber materials, hoping that it can greatly reduce the empty weight of aircraft. The plane will be controlled by three crew members. The planned maximum payload is 66 tons, the fuselage is 49 meters long, the wingspan is 49 meters, the wing area is 3 10 square meter, the height is 15 meters, and the maximum takeoff weight is 220 tons. The article "Jane's" is quite close to the Yun -20 scheme that was later exposed.
According to the information revealed at the China Aviation Industry Development Forum on May 8, 2008, in the next five years, Xifei will intensify its technological innovation, break through and master key technologies such as assembly integration of large aircraft, manufacturing of large composite structural parts, and assembly of large components, so as to ensure that the first flight goal of large transport aircraft will be achieved in 20 12 years. At this point, the development plan time of Yun -20 has been completely finalized.
On February 18, 2009, Lin Zuoming, the general manager of aviation industry corporation of china, announced the formal establishment of AVIC Aircraft Co., Ltd. in Xi 'an, which meant that the core content of the large aircraft plan-the large transport aircraft project and the large passenger aircraft parts project were formally defined. On the same day, it also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Yuan, governor of Shaanxi Province. Hu Xiaofeng, general manager of AVIC Aircraft, said that it is expected that in five years' time, large transport aircraft with Xifei as the main production will be put into commercial use. This is the first time that Yun -20 manufacturer announced the delivery time limit of Yun -20. At about 20 13/afternoon of October 26th 14, Yun -20, China's first autonomous strategic heavy transport aircraft, accelerated on the runway and took off smoothly. Yun -20 hovered over the test flight site, and passed the site at low altitude in front of the viewing platform at around 14: 50. The whole flight test was accompanied by a J-15, and the flight test was filmed. Then Yun -20 landed safely at 15, and the first flight was successful.
20 13 On March 2nd, a large transport plane Yun -20 independently developed by China carried out two ground taxi tests in a flight test center in the west. Compared with the painting on the first flight of 20 131October 26th, Yun -20, which was tested on March 2nd, 20 13, adopted a brand-new painting. Except for the radome, the original yellow-green fuselage painting has been completely replaced by gray-black. "This shows that the flight test of Yun -20 has entered a new stage." Chief designer Tang Changhong said that Yun -20 has a maximum take-off weight of 200 tons, which is highly scalable, reliable and safe. The 200-ton class means that Yun -20 is the largest aircraft developed by China and "marks that China ranks among the largest aircraft in the world". Yun -20, with a wingspan of about 50 meters and a captain of about 50 meters, has considerable prospects in transportation and other aviation fields in the future. Tang Changhong revealed that Yun -20 can be used for rescue transportation in earthquake relief and transportation of national construction equipment in the future, and will also be used for military purposes, such as rapid response of troops, and even as an aircraft carrier in other aspects, with strategic airlift capability. As can be seen from the first flight picture, Yun -20 has good short takeoff and landing capability and excellent aerodynamic characteristics. Less than 90 days after the first flight, at 6: 05 on April 20, 20 13, Yun -20 made its second test flight at a test base in the west. The second successful test flight of Yun -20 shows that its key technology is becoming more and more mature.
20 13 September, the latest flight test photos of Yun -20, the first domestic large-scale military transport aircraft, appeared on the Internet again. As can be seen from the photo, the nose part of Yun -20 is painted with a new nose number "78 1", and the number is big red.
20 13 12, the second prototype of Yun 20 successfully made its first flight in a flight test center in the west. It only took less than a year for Yun -20 to fly from the first prototype to the second prototype, which shows that its key technology is more mature and the development work is very smooth. Only 1 prototype of Yun -20 is performing test flight, and there may be a ground strength tester and a fatigue tester respectively.
On the eve of the Army Day of 20 14, the third prototype of Yun-20 was painted gray, numbered "783", and landed smoothly after the test flight. This means that the aircraft has been put into scientific research flight test, which will accelerate the development of Yun 20.
On March 2, 20654381,China CCTV disclosed the development and production of Yun -20, a large domestic transport aircraft, and exposed the cockpit avionics system of Yun -20 transport aircraft in China for the first time. It also disclosed the flight test of the next phase of the Universiade for the first time, especially the parts of Yun -20 successfully produced by 3D printing technology for the first time in the world. Academician Tang Changhong, chief designer of AVIC First Aircraft Design and Research Institute and chief designer of Yun -20, analyzed the development course and application prospect of Yun -20 in an interview.
The official name of Yun -20 is Kun Peng. Yun -20 adopts cantilever upper wing, leading edge swept back and wingless winglet, which has high reliability and safety and has certain expansion ability. "The domestic engine that will be equipped with Yun -20 is progressing smoothly and has made great progress." The prototype is an aircraft developed in the early stage. The first and second Yun -20 prototypes, which first flew at the end of 20 13/October 26th and 13 at the end of February, will be given different flight test verification tasks during the flight test.
Yun -20 achieved the maximum takeoff weight and maximum flying height. The design of Yun -20 cockpit also uses motion capture technology to simulate the actual operation and give full play to the cockpit layout of man-machine efficacy. The pilot's flight experience of Yun -20 is described as: the aircraft is very stable, and its aerodynamic characteristics, take-off and landing characteristics, bearing capacity and so on are excellent.
The different divisions of the prototype flight test include structural strength, aerodynamics, flight performance, flight quality, system function and performance, and the extreme boundary flight of the aircraft. "The test flight of the Yun -20 prototype has to be tested by destructive tasks, such as extreme flight and strength test, flutter test, stall speed flight, icing task and other high-risk flight subjects. The equipment quantity, technical level and carrying efficiency of large military transport aircraft are important signs to measure whether a country has the strategic air force capability. Yun -20 is a strategic transport aircraft in large military transport aircraft and also has the function of tactical transport aircraft. " The development needs of Yun -20 are compatible with the development of the country's comprehensive strength. "Large aircraft is an indispensable key equipment for national security and economic construction. Independent research and development of large aircraft is of great significance for stimulating national economic growth, promoting scientific and technological progress and realizing national defense modernization. Yun -20 was manufactured by thousands of enterprises all over the country, and the manufacturing standards were unified, which was unprecedented, and it was the first time in the history of China aviation industry.
Yun -20 was jointly developed by thousands of domestic enterprises, and its manufacturing standard was unified, which was unprecedented, and it was the first time in the history of China aviation industry. The successful first flight of this aircraft is a great leap of China's independent innovation ability in the development of large aircraft, which indicates that the gap between China and Europe and the United States is further narrowed.