Chinese Air Force's Y-20 transport aircraft gets high bypass ratio engines

Aviation Defense News April 2023
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China's Y-20 large transport aircraft has been enhanced by a new type of engine with a high bypass ratio. The improvement will give the domestically developed cargo plane a higher takeoff weight and a longer range, Liu Xuanzun reports in Global Times.

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Chinese Air Forces Y 20 transport aircraft gets high bypass ratio engines 2 According to this picture, the Y-20B seems to be officially unveiled but since there is not yet a serial number applied, the aircraft might not yet be handed over officially (Picture source: Weibo)

A Y-20 seen this month was different from those seen in the past, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on April 10, showing two Y-20s side by side as they carried out an airdrop mission. While the CCTV report did not elaborate on the difference, observers pointed out that the appearance of the engines the new Y-20 have is significantly different from that of the previous one. The new engines seem shorter but have a larger diameter, meaning they have a larger bypass ratio. This is the first time a Y-20 has been seen equipped with this type of engine in an official media report.

Generally speaking, Liu Xuanzun explains, an engine with a high bypass ratio is larger but provides higher thrust and consumes less fuel. This will give the aircraft a higher takeoff weight and a longer range, and enable it to take off and land on shorter runways, a Beijing-based military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Tuesday. Thanks to these characteristics, engines with high bypass ratios are popular among operators of large aircraft, including strategic transport aircraft and passenger planes, the expert said.

Chinese military aviation expert Song Xinzhi said in a CCTV program in 2020 that China had reportedly been developing the WS-20 engine to replace the Russian D-30 engine currently used on the Y-20. Tang Changhong, chief designer of the Y-20, said at a press conference at the Airshow China 2021 held in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province that the aircraft would be equipped with two types of domestically developed engines, both of which were undergoing flight tests that were progressing smoothly as of that time.

The new engine is expected to be installed on other large aircraft, including the YU-20 aerial tanker and other special mission aircraft.