The largest transport aircraft in the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) will have a commercial counterpart as China seeks to end the dominance of Western aircraft manufacturers in this lucrative business.
The commercial version of the Xi'an Y-20 heavy-lift transport jet -- dubbed the Y-20F-100 -- will feature a redesigned air frame and cargo loading system, said state-owned defense technology firm, Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC).
The Y-20F-100 will be longer than the Y-20 and will carry up to 28 airfreight containers, or 65 metric tons of cargo. It can also lift supersized engineering equipment.
The Y-20F-100 will have a maximum range of 8,000 km. More than 1,000 Y-20s and Y-20F-100s will be needed by China, said Zhu Qian, head of AVIC's large aircraft development office. He said this figure was calculated based on the experience of the United States and Russia since these countries have used heavy-lift transport aircraft for many years.
A small-scale model of the Y-20F-100 was displayed at the recent 11th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition at Zhuhai in Guangdong province.
"This project represents our commitment to transferring military technologies to boost civilian sectors and will fill the absence of a domestically developed large cargo plane," said AVIC.
There were only 122 cargo jets in use by cargo airlines on the Chinese mainland in 2015 and most of their large freight jets were made by Boeing and Airbus, said AVIC. On the other hand, heavy-lift cargo jets used by the PLAAF were mainly imported from Russia.
This means only a handful of aviation firms in the world are able to design and produce large cargo jets and now China wants to be among this exclusive group.
The first Y-20s, nicknamed Chubby Girl, were delivered to the PLAAF last July. China is the third nation after the United States and Russia to design and develop its own heavy military transport aircraft.
The Y-20 is the largest military transport aircraft in Asia and the largest military aircraft currently in production.
Developed by Xi'an Aircraft Corporation, the Y-20 has an empty weight of 110 short tons. Boeing's C-17 Globemaster III, however, is bigger than the Y-20. The American transport's empty weight is 60,000 pounds more than the Y-20 and its payload capacity is 25,000 pounds more.
The Y-20 can transport China's largest tank, the Type 99 weighing 54 tonnes, plus other vehicles, supplies or a large number of troops. It draws power from four Russian-made Soloviev D-30 turbofan engines.