China's attempts to obtain foreign combat types: Draken, Mirage, Harrier, P-16 .

Deino

Deino

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I think we all know the successful attempts to obtain / purchase foreign combat types ... lesser known are such attempts esp. during the brief Sino-Western-honeymoon during the 1980s like the Harrier and the French deliveries of helicopters ... we also know that prior to the J-10 there were considerations to buy the Mirage 2000, but I was a bit surprised to find this during my ongoing search / research. It's an interesting note I previously did not know, regarding the attempt purchase the Swiss P-16 fighter bomber and Swedish J-35 fighters: :eek:

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In 1962, Red Chinese representatives from the second Ministry of Machine Building responsible for licensed aircraft production visited aircraft production plants in Sweden and Switzerland in order to make arrangements for Chinese production of advanced designs under development in both European countries. Top priority was assigned to obtaining rights and assistance to produce an export version of the Swedish SAAB J-35 Draken, a modern Rolls-Royce RB-146-powered double-delta-fighter equipped with afterburners and a highly sophisticated electronic fire-control system. Negotiations fell through before any positive steps could be taken. In Switzerland, the Chinese showed interest in the AFA P-16 Mark III Strike Fighter, but nothing came of the connection.
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Even more ...

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Recognition of the People’s Republic of China by France in January, 1964, seemed to offer another avenue of aircraft acquisition, and discussions at the French trade fair at Peking in April, 1964, centered on the sale of Dassault Mirage fighters and nuclear bombers to the Chinese.
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Source: Richard M. Bueschel, "Communist Chinese Air Force", Praeger, New York, p. 69 (1968) !!!


Does anyone have some more specific details and information on these three finally failed attempts ... and does anyone have more such ones ?? ???

Thanks in advance, ;)
Deino
 
Hey .. thanks a lot, I did not know that !

Regarding the secret Sino-US connections since a long time I have that strange feeling that esp. the US wouldn't like to be reminded (a situation that reminds me to former girl-friend I had ;D ) ... the question is what else was already delivered or even more under negotiations besides the well known things like the Boeing B.737 + CFM-56 engines, F-16-radar for the J-8B-Peace Pearl (were they ever delivered ?), the Super-7 (why was never an official diagram published from Grumman ?).

I remember the rumours about SAC's intention to acquire the licence to manufacture the F-16 ... there were reports about a new "clean-sheet-design" under consideration with CAc as a follow-on to the S-7 ... was maybe an US-powerplant considered for the J-10 ?? Who knows ?? ???

Deino
 
at the time, the J-35 Draken was one of the more impressive supersonic fighters avaiable through export. so not too surprised. even back then, china was looking to build the infrastrucutre it needed to become self-sufficent indstrially.
 
Super Mustang T.100 (Temco 51) ... Flight International, 1 October 1988
 

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With the problems that the Nimrod AEW Mk1 had in testing with the GEC Marconi radar I would have thought that it was strange that the Chinese would look at the radar for their IL-76 based equivalent.
 

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