China and Cuba have a long history of friendship and have always been enviable good partners, good brothers and good friends. However, in recent years, due to the unreasonable sanctions imposed by the United States and the West on Cuba, the Cuban economy, which was originally rich enough to export sugar and known as the "sugar pot of the world", has fallen into a difficult situation, and has had a very serious collateral negative impact. Therefore, under these circumstances, China has taken decisive action and directly provided assistance to Cuba.
Recently, according to relevant sources, China has transported a batch of 68 tons of rice to Cuba, which has been warmly welcomed by the Cuban side with heartfelt thanks and reflects the profound friendship between China and Cuba. However, it is worth noting that, according to the media disclosure of relevant parties, the transportation of rice by our side this time was not a Y-20 transport plane with a high "appearance rate", but an American-made Boeing cargo plane.
As you know, the Y-20, as the main transport aircraft of our army in active service, is also one of the world's most advanced transport aircraft, not only with a large number of equipment, but also with very mature technology, and even has an export version. In recent years, the Y-20 has also repeatedly made a big splash in various domestic and international affairs, proving its excellent performance. For example, the formation that made the Y-20 famous flew to Serbia back then, allowing Europe to also appreciate the style of this advanced aircraft, and recently the Y-20 also flew thousands of kilometers long distances and arrived in Moscow, the capital of Russia, carrying the personnel of our army to participate in military competitions;
In fact, the Y-20 is indeed very powerful, but after all, it is the pioneering work of the mainland's strategic transport plane, and there are still some shortcomings. It is these shortcomings that make it temporarily unable to meet the task.
The first is that the range is too short. The author checked, the straight-line distance (flight path) from China to Cuba (the geographical center of the two countries) is 13,630 kilometers, and the Y-20 should have a range of more than 8,000 kilometers according to known information, reaching more than 8,000 kilometers (if it is fully loaded, its range will not exceed 4,000 kilometers). It can be seen that there is no way for the Y-20 to fly directly to Cuba during the range. Moreover, most of the airspace between China and Cuba is the vast Pacific Ocean, and it is difficult to find a suitable airport for stopover refueling, which is the reason why the Y-20 did not go to Cuba this time. In fact, on the previous voyage to Serbia, our Y-20 also made a stopover in Turkey.
For comparison, the range of the C-17 transport aircraft in the United States, which is similar to the Y-20, can be as high as 11,600 kilometers (in the case of in-flight refueling) according to public information, and the Boeing cargo aircraft can basically reach 1.2 kilometers to more than 13,000 kilometers.
So, many friends may ask, so the Y-20 adopts the method of refueling in the air, can't it complete such a long-distance flight? This actually involves the second shortcoming of the Y-20 -- it does not have the ability to receive refueling in the air.
In fact, the penetration rate of air refueling devices on large transport aircraft is not high, for example, the famous Russian Il-76 transport aircraft does not have the ability to receive refueling in the air. However, due to the small number of tanker planes in the early years, the air refueling device was not fully rolled out, and the vast majority of the Y-20 transport planes and H-6 series bombers did not have the ability to receive refueling in the air. Only the fighter from the J-10A has made clear the design of carrying an air refueling device. At present, although the Y-20 has been launched, it has not yet been fully equipped in large quantities, and it is believed that the installation of air fuel probes on the Y-20 is just around the corner, so that the Y-20 transport aircraft can also fly farther.
The YF-20 should still be in its early stages of development
Finally, there is another disadvantage, that is, the load capacity is not enough. According to publicly available data, this month we will complete the task of transporting up to 408 tons of rice to Cuba in six batches, and the total weight of the first shipment will be as high as 68 tons. This has already exceeded the maximum carrying capacity of the Y-20.
According to the data released by Tang Changhong, chief engineer of the Y-20, the maximum take-off weight of the Y-20 is 220 tons, the maximum load is 66 tons, and the load factor is just 0.3. It can be seen from this that if we use the Y-20, then we will most likely have to "fly a few more times".
To sum up, it can be seen that the Y-20 failed to "amaze" Cuba and even Latin America, and there is indeed a small regret, and the general reason is that the "foot power" of the Y-20 is not enough to cover South America. In fact, this is also related to the needs of our army at the moment - we really do not need to have such capabilities for the time being. However, the author believes that if the above deficiencies are to be improved, we still have such ability, and when the more powerful domestic engine is fully replaced in the future, the new version of the Y-20 will be able to "amaze the world".
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, the Y-20 is just the beginning for us, and the American C-17, although powerful, has been out of production for many years. In contrast, for us, the long road to the blue sky has only just begun!