Recently, there was a good news at the Saudi Arabian "Global Defense Exhibition" that the large transport aircraft independently developed by China has obtained the qualification of exporting to foreign countries, and the export code is "Y-20BE". According to relevant news reports, as early as November last year, Chinese companies had already shown this model to the Nigerian Minister of Defense, which shows that China hopes to sell this model. Looking at the world, there is only one rival left, the United States. Our main advantage over this strong opponent is our accumulation, and that advantage is quite obvious.
If we simply fight for technical heritage, there is still a gap between China's aviation industry and the United States, but the disadvantages of the United States are also obvious. First of all, the United States has long dismantled the production lines of large transport aircraft and heavy transport aircraft, and even the C-17 large transport aircraft imported by India from the United States are all refurbished goods from the cemetery. As far as the United States is concerned, there are standards for the differentiation of the trade market for the world's large transport aircraft, and they will not export to countries and regions that are not friendly or disinterested. Moreover, the current aviation industry in the United States is slowly losing, and it is difficult to say whether the production line of large transport aircraft can be restarted now, because military aircraft are different from civil aircraft, it has a set of technical standards, especially in the new era, the design conditions of transport aircraft have higher technical requirements, such as engine materials, which need to be imported from China.
Of course, this does not mean that the United States has completely lost the foundation of continuing to develop the aviation industry, and its current weak state in the field of transport aircraft is precisely because the arms race during the Cold War was overweight, so that it has no similar demand for several decades, and after the new century, there has been this "technological blowout," and the United States is now in a position where it is unable to develop new models but does not want to overlap the top spot in the field of transport aircraft. And this is precisely the main manifestation of the advantages of the 20th generation, with the urgent needs of the People's Liberation Army as support, can be a small upgrade to expand a complete set of industrial system and sell to the outside world, in order to stabilize its own industrial heritage, and slowly achieve transcendence. As for Russia, there is no advanced technology to support it, and its industrial capacity is no longer suitable for the present. In addition, since the Russian army intervened in the situation in Syria, Russian equipment has collapsed and sunk in the sand, and its reputation in the international community has declined, which has directly led to the already difficult Russian aviation industry becoming more difficult, and the Russian army itself does not have the ability to support these factories.
Come to think of it, China is the only country in the international community that can maintain the sale of new models without attaching political ties. However, it should also be noted that at present, the international community does not have a large demand for large transport aircraft, on the contrary, the demand for some tactical transport aircraft is relatively large. But this area has long been monopolized by the C-130 and the European A-400M, and the Chinese Y-8 and Y-9 do not have a competitive advantage in this regard. Even the Y-20 marketed to Nigeria is a large model that far exceeds the needs of others. In general, large transport aircraft are mainly responsible for long-range attack and rapid response, which is the demand of military powers, and small countries generally need medium-sized transport aircraft. If you need to transport large items, you will choose to lease other countries' military or civil aircraft.