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I wonder if it really is largely a result of theft. To my eyes, it looks like any other modern cargo plane that could have been made in the last 50 years; I'm n
by hotpotamus 3y ago
I wonder if it really is largely a result of theft. To my eyes, it looks like any other modern cargo plane that could have been made in the last 50 years; I'm not sure how much advance there really has been on the airframe. My sense is that most of the really hard tech advances have been in the engines (and the gains are somewhat marginal, but important to carriers), and the article says they're still buying those.
I suspect the hard part of putting together a plane like this is getting the entire assembly line/industrial ecosystem bootstrapped, and there's not a whole lot that spycraft can do to actually build out that industry.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoThey are buying engines and avionics. So mostly body work is being done in Chinese factories.
- ChatGTP 3y agoFor now, won't be for long until they build the whole thing, they're a growing super power mostly created by the west off shoring their operations there to make more money...we just have to deal with it...
- TheLoafOfBread 3y agoIt might be some time, Chinese are struggling with jet engines since 1950s. Still not being able to get them running reliably for at least same hours as western or even Russian engines. https://eurasiantimes.com/chinas-engine-problems-despite-new-tech-for-j-20-stealth-fighters/ https://eurasiantimes.com/chinas-engine-problems-despite-new...
- ChatGTP 3y agoIt’s not going to be an unsolvable problem for them.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoJet engines are a tough cookie to crack. It is easy to get performance or efficiency or economy (time between rebuilds), but not all three at once. You can’t simply reverse engineer one either, so they got to put in all the work themselves, as they are dumping billions into R&D. Avionics are easier but…software really isn’t that easy, especially software that prevents your plane from crashing.