In the past, whenever the shortcomings of Chinese fighters were mentioned, there was always talk of "heart disease". Until the J-20 began to be replaced with turbofan-15, it means that China is finally in the first echelon of the world in the field of high-thrust and small-bypass ratio turbofan engines, or at the level of keeping pace with the United States and Russia. With the advancement of the FC-31 fighter project, its future turbofan-19 mid-thrust engine has also appeared in the media many times, and the R&D cycle exceeds expectations to show that there is no bottleneck, and the difference is only time. However, we cannot deny that China still has a major shortcoming in the field of engines: that is, the field of small-thrust turbofan engines has always relied on the AL322 engine imported from Ukraine's Madasich.
However, this day has become a thing of the past, and the aviation industry Hongdu has recently completed the test flight of the L-15 advanced training aircraft equipped with the Minshan engine, which marks the last shortcoming in China's aero engine field. Recent news shows that the L-15 model has been boarded on the Fujian aircraft carrier, indicating that China has another carrier-based aircraft.
According to media reports, China previously purchased 400 AL-322 engines from Ukraine, which are planned for the L-15. However, as the war in Ukraine continues, the production schedule of the company has been severely damaged, and even 100 engines have not been delivered. Coupled with the fact that China's contract to buy Madassi was sabotaged by the Zelensky government, all this is forcing China to come up with a domestic alternative.
This brings up a question: China was able to develop the turbofan-15 and can also rapidly promote the development of the turbofan-19, why was the progress of the development of the Minshan engine very slow before? It can only be said that for a long time, we did not pay attention to the importance of the small-thrust turbofan engine, after all, it can be used for the small-thrust engine, that is, the training aircraft. However, with the current need for small turbofan engines for high-end drones and the uncertainty faced by China's outsourced AL-322, the problem has become more urgent. Of course, there is also the problem that it is difficult to develop a small push turbofan. From the point of view of the difficulty of development, it is not easy to compare the small thrust turbofan engine with the medium thrust and the large thrust. We can use "although the sparrow is small, it has all the organs", the small push is about 600 kilograms, and the middle push is about 1000 kilograms, which requires all key components to be smaller and lighter. For example, the temperature before the small push turbine is as high as 1600~1650K, and its cooling system is small.
For China, there is also a challenge for the development of the Minshan engine is to surpass the AL-322 of the motor sich.AL-322 is a joint development engine of Russia and Ukraine, and the overall technical level is still good, such as the use of 8-stage high-pressure compressor, full-authority digital engine control system, directional crystalline turbine blades, high-load blisk and other new technologies. The service life of the hot and cold end components reaches 6000 and 4000 hours respectively, the overhaul interval reaches 2000 hours, the thrust-to-weight ratio is 5.68, and the fuel consumption rate is 0.64.
The "Minshan" displayed by China at the Zhuhai Air Show adopts a series of new technologies such as 2-stage fan + 7-stage high-pressure compressor, double-rotor afterburner turbofan, forward-swept wide-chord fan blades, adjustable convergence diffusion nozzle, etc., with a military thrust of 2.8 tons and an afterburner thrust of up to 4800 kg, which exceeds the 2.5 tons and 4.5 tons of the AL-322 engine. The L-15 uses twin engines, which means that its afterburner thrust is up to 9,600 kg, and the overall thrust-to-weight ratio easily exceeds 1.3. Even if the L-15 develops a carrier-based aircraft with a strengthened structure, the thrust-to-weight ratio should exceed 1.1. It can be said that the L-15 is the first fighter with the first maneuverability when using the AL-322, and after the Minshan engine is replaced in the future, the mobility is even more powerful to no friends.
After the AL-15 is reequipped with Minshan, it will not only further expand its export prospects, but also lay the foundation for the aircraft to become a qualified carrier-based training aircraft. After China has the Minshan engine, it has obtained an advanced power plant to promote the development of high-end UAVs, which will also make China an aero-engine industrial power with advanced large push, medium push and small push, and it can be said that there is no "heart disease" problem.