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The GeoEye 1 and IKONOS spacecraft have captured satellite images of the mysterious Xian Aircraft Corporation Y-20, China’s first long range jet transport. It shows the clearest image of the giant transport plane yet and reveals that China’s plane looks a lot like the U.S. Air Force’s C-17. That’s not an accident.
The satellite images, which were obtained by Wired’s Danger Room, show China’s Y-20 as having the same “wide swept wing and T-shaped tail” as the Boeing made C-17. The blueprints of the C-17 were stolen by spies working for Boeing and given to China. This plane’s design is a rip-off.
What China can’t rip off though are the engines that are necessary to power the plane. Apparently, there are only four companies capable of building the kind of engines that the Y-20 needs. Three are Western companies (GE/CFM, Rolls Royce and Pratt & Whitney) and one is Russian. It’s assumed that China will have to use Russian engines to lift its 200-tonne body (however, Russia is reluctant to sell engines to China because China might rip them off) and those engines may lack the performance in modern transport planes. So though the Y-20 may look like an American giant transport plane, it may actually be all show and no go. [Wired, Image Credit: GeoEye GeoEye 1]
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Huh?
yu know that there were pics of this from christmas eve?
http://defense-update.com/20121229_y20_unofficial-debut.html
and as for that crap about russia not selling engines to china, have you not heard of google. LOL
here is a picture of THIRTY IL-76 aircraft sold to the PLAAF , http://china-defense.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/ge-we-bring-good-things-to-life.html , thats 4 engines per plane.
What a well researched, objective, unbiased article! Am i the only one who suspects this might be missing part of the story?
Oh, please. That “wide swept wing and T-shaped tail” features on most strategic airlifters built to date. To name a few off the top of my head… IL-76/78, C-5, C-141, A-400M and, yes, the C-17.
No way is this defining proof of a copycat design. Sometimes planes look alike simply because they follow the prevailing best practices of their time.
No.
Next time, get someone who knows what they’re talking about to check your article before you publish it.
Giz gets worse every day. Two minutes on Google every day would halve the number of stories you put up. The Google/North Korea mystery? You could find the answer within 10 seconds if you tried. If you tried.
‘show China’s Y-20 as having the same “wide swept wing and T-shaped tail” as the Boeing made C-17′
It’s trying to lift ~200 tonnes, and presumably carry a large quantity of fuel as well, so wide wings are somewhat of a necessity.
In order to achieve a high subsonic cruise speed without ripping the wings off, said wings need to be swept.
To top it off, if you’re trying to have a rear-loading transport aircraft, then you can’t have the tailplane in the way, therefore a high-T tail is needed!