The role of large transport aircraft is undoubted, which is why the mainland insists on developing the Y-20 transport aircraft even after the introduction of the Russian Il-76 transport aircraft. However, looking at the world, the Y-20 transport aircraft can only be said to be slightly stronger than the Russian Il-76 in the field of strategic transport aircraft, and there is still a certain performance gap compared with the C-5 of the United States and the Russian An-124, which can almost be said to have just reached the standard of "strategic transport aircraft". Therefore, in this case, it can be said that it is imperative to develop a large strategic transport aircraft with stronger performance.
According to an interview with Professor Zhang Haiou of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China is currently developing the Y-40 heavy long-range strategic transport plane, and the performance of this super-large strategic transport aircraft not only surpasses that of the Y-20, but also surpasses all the strategic transport planes in service in the world, and can almost be compared with the An-225 of the year! According to public information from relevant quarters, this powerful transport aircraft has a maximum take-off weight of 600 tons and a maximum carrying capacity of about 180 tons.
We know that the world's largest transport aircraft was once the famous An-225, which has a maximum take-off weight of 640 tons and a maximum cargo capacity of up to 250 tons. However, it is a pity that this treasure in the history of human industry was unfortunately destroyed in the war, which is undoubtedly a loss for all mankind.
After the An-225, the world's largest existing transport aircraft is the Russian An-124 large transport aircraft, which is also developed during the Soviet period with a maximum take-off weight of 405 tons. The load capacity can reach 120-150 tons. As an aside, decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world's largest and second largest transport aircraft were still developed during the Soviet era, which shows how strong the industrial strength of the Soviet Union was at that time!
This is followed by the largest transport aircraft in the US military, the C-5 "Galaxy" transport aircraft, which has a maximum take-off weight of 379 tons, and the latest improved C-5M can reach about 120 tons to 130 tons. In addition to the above three, there are no transport aircraft in service in the world with a payload of more than 100 tons.
According to the information that has been known now, the future Y-40 transport aircraft will use a new type of high-thrust engine with advanced performance - a 40-ton thrust large turbofan, and this large engine is likely to be improved on the basis of our existing "Yangtze River-2000" engine. After simple calculations, only four such high-thrust engines are needed to drive a "giant in the air" like the An-225, and if a six-engine configuration is used like the An-225, then the take-off weight of such a transport aircraft can even reach the thousand-ton class!
It can be seen that the performance of the Y-40 transport aircraft has greatly exceeded that of any existing large transport aircraft in the world, and if the platform is diversified and improved, it can become a high-performance air tanker, UAV mother aircraft, large early warning aircraft, etc. at any time. According to relevant sources, a certain institute of the aviation industry has already established a project for this transport aircraft in 2022, and if everything goes well, it is very likely that this aircraft will meet us in 2029!
Let's look forward to it together!