On February 13, the Chinese Air Force dispatched Y-20 large transport aircraft to support Wuhan, attracting wide attention at home and abroad. This move marks a new level in strategic / combat projection capabilities of the Chinese Air Force, and breakthroughs have been made in the construction of its strategic air force.
Overseas media noticed a detail; when Y-20 took off to return to its voyage, the running time was only about 20 seconds, and it was easily pulled up within 800 meters. It looks like the bloated and fat one is as light as a bird, showing excellent short-range take-off and landing ability, which is impressive.
The outside world believes that short-range takeoff and landing is one of the key indicators of military transport aircraft, especially for large transport aircraft.
Y-20 is now equipped with D-30KP-2 turbofan engine, which has a thrust of only 12.5 tons and the performance is not very good.
If China’s domestic WS-20 engine is used in the future, its maximum thrust can reach 15 tons and the fuel consumption would be lower. After Y-20 is equipped with WS-20 engines, the aircraft’s take-off and landing performance will be even better.
Higher thrust engines can increase Y-20 to increase maximum takeoff weight and payload. According to overseas data, China’s latest Type 99A main battle tank has a total combat weight of about 58 tons, and Y-20 would need to increase its load if it wants to deliver Type 99A main battle tank in high temperature and high altitude environment.