The 10 tonnage helicopters in active service in China are mainly Zhi-15 and Zhi -20. The layout of Zhi-15 in these two helicopters is more suitable for boarding than Zhi -20, but Zhi-15 seems to have been eliminated by the navy and has not received any military orders.
On the contrary, orders for Zhi -20 continue. Not surprisingly, it will become the main carrier-based helicopter in China in the future. So why did China's navy finally choose Zhi -20?
The primary cause of helicopter positioning problem is naturally the positioning of these two helicopters. Zhi-15 is a civil helicopter, and many of its designs were designed for civil use from the beginning.
On the contrary, Zhi -20 was designed for military use from the beginning, and its performance and many equipments are all for military equipment.
For example, now the army needs a transport plane to train parachuting recruits. The military can choose civil airliners and military transport planes.
Civil airliners are quiet and comfortable, consume less fuel, military transport planes are extremely noisy, and the engine room is full of oil smell. Ordinary people will vomit in this environment after flying for a while. Moreover, the transport plane consumes a lot of fuel, and it costs a lot of money to open an umbrella for the recruits.
If they are ordinary candidates, most of them will choose civil airliners for training, but the military will definitely choose transport planes for training in general.
First of all, many designs of civil airliners are not suitable for skydiving. The hatch of the passenger plane is at the waist of the fuselage, so soldiers who jump from the hatch are easily caught in the engine near the tail of the fuselage. Only planes with doors on the "ass" such as transport planes can be used for skydiving.
Secondly, passenger planes have a high demand for airports. How can there be so many high-standard airports in a state of war?
Therefore, it is almost impossible for civil airliners to be used as transport planes in wartime. Soldiers are used to parachuting in passenger planes, but what if they are not familiar with parachuting in transport planes?
Paratroopers get airsick and vomit when they get on the plane. That's because soldiers are not trained enough. When he vomits a few more times, he will become an old hand.
If the army of any country can choose training equipment because of the comfort of soldiers and other reasons, it means that this country does not want to develop its military strength at all.
It can be seen that civilian and military equipment can not be mixed at all, both have their own needs, and their design is based on demand.
As a civil aircraft, Zhi-15 focuses on economy and comfort, and can't adapt to the complex sea conditions in the war state at all. Zhi -20 mainly focuses on reliability and adaptability, regardless of economy and comfort.
Helicopter engine problem, the second reason why Zhi-15 was not purchased by the navy is the patent problem. The turboshaft of straight-15 engine-16 is an engine jointly developed by China and France, and its design has many technical patent problems.
If the turboshaft-16 is an engine independently developed by our country, we don't need to worry about this problem. However, there are many French technologies for scroll-16, so the use of scroll-15 can only be limited to the civil field.
After all, the arms embargo on China still exists. Since the death of Charles de Gaulle, France has been getting closer and closer to the United States since the 1970s. Later, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, France was controlled by the United States to some extent. Therefore, France is also a participant in the arms embargo against China.
However, this does not mean that the vortex axis-16 has no positive significance for China's military development. The field of helicopter engines in China itself is a big shortcoming. Although the turboshaft-16 can't be used for military purposes, in the process of Sino-French joint development, researchers also participated deeply and learned a lot of experience in designing high-power helicopter engines, which can be used for the next engine development.
In the case that many patents of scroll-16 are in the hands of France, it is still up to France to decide whether Zhi-15 can be used in the military. Because of the limitation of patent, the navy only used the Zhi -20 with the vortex axis of-10 when choosing the10-ton helicopter.
The versatility of Zhi -20 is not difficult to understand. In fact, the layout of Zhi -20 is not as good as Zhi-15. Because the positioning of the Zhi -20 is a "general helicopter", not only the so-called universality is considered.
Compared with helicopters specially designed for a certain demand, general helicopters need to be considered in many places, such as transport helicopters, armed assault helicopters, rescue helicopters and so on.
If we regard it as a transport plane on the battlefield, we should first consider its carrying capacity, and its internal space is larger.
If it is used for rescue, in addition to the internal size, it has to be loaded with a lot of rescue equipment, such as insulation and blood transfusion equipment.
If used as an armed assault helicopter, the Zhi -20 does not need much internal space. It needs thicker armor to ensure its survivability, greater load to ensure it can hold more ammunition, and various excellent flight control, electronic control, fire control and other equipment to assist it.
It is not difficult to see from these examples that the requirements of different helicopters are very different. If a helicopter wants to modify each other on the basis of the prototype, then universality becomes the first problem it needs to consider.
Considering universality, it is difficult to carry the special design required by some helicopters. Obviously, for the sake of universality, the Zhi -20 does not have a "specific" design like Zhi-15 in the airframe layout, so it is more unsuitable for boarding than Zhi-15.
In addition, since Zhi -20 is a general-purpose fighter, it can naturally be used not only as a military aircraft, but also for civilian use. After all, there are many civilian versions of the Black Hawk helicopter famous for its military. As a domestic helicopter aimed at the American Black Hawk, Zhi -20 can naturally be changed into a civilian version.
At present, the domestic demand for helicopters is still relatively large. Although Zhi-15 is a pure civilian helicopter, it can't eat this market alone, so it is not impossible for Zhi -20 to enter the civilian market in the future.
However, it is difficult for Zhi -20 to seize a certain share in the field of civil helicopters internationally. Helicopter is, after all, China's weakness. Facing strong rivals such as the United States, France and Russia, it is still difficult for China to open the market in the field of economical civil helicopters.