Chinese Y-7 AWACS and KJ-600 AWACS

NMaude said:
I wonder how much copying of the E-2 Hawkeye was done in creating it? At least for the basic airframe design anyway.
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Probably both a lot and not too much.
Everything functional / not well understood(just in case) is clearly copied very diligently.

Plane itself is 50/50 - it's very similar, but at the same time - frankly it's average twin engine turboprop on different components everywhere.

But functionally - we see a huge nosecone, which isn't there on E-2; not unlike those of 1960s missileer.
I.e. there's like 95% probability there is a full sized, swiveling x-band air to air set there. And as a flying radar, it's a far more capable band combination when compared to E-2D - with full AA targeting, uncompromised height finding and low altitude search/acquisition capability, including overland.

Compared to this, platform similarity is frankly tertiary.
 
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Aside from the fact that the E-2 Hawkeye is a highly successful AWACS design that has been around for ~60 years I see a lot of the aeronautical equivalent of convergent evolution (Form follows function).
 
NMaude said:
Aside from the fact that the E-2 Hawkeye is a highly successful AWACS design that has been around for ~60 years I see a lot of the aeronautical equivalent of convergent evolution (Form follows function).
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Agreed. Some of the early Vickers/BAC/Blackburn/HSA proposals have a similar configuration. Be a brave man who said which came first.

Chris
 
Interesting to see on this picture, the 3rd one from the post above, that the corrosion affecting the coating is resulting from being exposed to elements* while static (parked with wing folded).

Engine nuts among us will also appreciate the heavy smoking of the exhausts.

*Sunlight?
 
FighterJock said:
Surprised at the heavy smoking of the exhausts on the KJ-600. I would have thought that the engine manufacturers would have found out a way to stop the engines smoking like that?
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It take time, and as there are too many things waiting to be tested, it might be smokeless until 004 gets in service. :D Maybe these heavy smoke will be a remarkable memory of 003. :cool:
 
That is true, we will need to wait until the next variant of the engines is ready for the KJ-600 before we get to see the end of the smoky engines.
 
FighterJock said:
Surprised at the heavy smoking in the exhausts on the KJ-600. I would have thought that the engine manufacturers would have found out a way to stop the engines smoking like that?
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It's using grampa aged WJ-6Cs what whatever reason instead of the new WJ-10s. I suppose serial airframes might switch to that in the next year or two.
 
snne said:
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Hopefully things will change soon with younger officers getting put in charge. A lot of why China "copies" or reference western designs was partly due to cheaper and saving development costs and partly due to the higher ups which consisted of the older generation who are overly conservative. With most of these older officials retiring and abundance of funding, it seems they are taking more risk and going with more advanced and unique solutions with newer systems.
 
The main issue was still a lack of funds. Every bit of money in the past had to be used wisely, ensuring that each expenditure had a corresponding return. At times, even employees’ salaries could not be paid on time. That said, during that period of eased relations, the relevant personnel still frequently traveled around the world for inspections, maintaining a fairly clear understanding of industry development trends. They may have had many creative ideas, but due to limited funds, these ideas often ended up abandoned halfway. In fact, if the task for their generation was to develop powerful equipment with limited financial resources, then their generation actually did quite well.
 

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