Chinese military plane boosts nation's global reach

The Y-20, China's biggest home-produced military transport jet to date, took to the skies for its maiden flight on Saturday in the northwest of the country, just months after Beijing's first aircraft carrier entered service.

Pictures showed the bulky green plane — an aircraft that will enable China to project military power across vast distances — soaring into a clear blue sky.

The state-run Global Times hailed the flight of the plane numbered 20001 as a “significant milestone,” saying China needed the aircraft to “enhance its global power projection.”

It will allow China's military to end its dependence on the Russian-made Il-76, a mainstay of humanitarian and disaster relief around the world, the paper quoted a military expert as saying.

The Y-20 has a maximum payload of 66 tons, which it can carry as far as 4,400 kilometers (2,700 miles), the China Daily said, and with 55 tons on board it could fly from western China to Cairo.

It is big enough to hold the heaviest tank used by China's army, the paper added, quoting a military expert as saying that “the heavy air freighters will ensure that we are able to safeguard our interests overseas.”

“With them, we can transport our people or large equipment to farther destinations,” said Liang Fang, professor of strategy at the PLA (People's Liberation Army) National Defense University.

The test flight was a “big step” for China's air force, said Andrei Chang, editor-in-chief of the Canadian-based Kanwa Defense Review, but added that the Y-20 was technologically inferior to other military transport planes.

True figures for the Y-20's maximum load and flying range were likely to be lower than those cited in state media, he added, due to the plane's reliance on a “very old” Russian-designed engine.

“(The engine's) oil consumption is very bad, it wastes a lot of fuel,” he said, pointing out that because of noise some developed countries have banned aircraft using it from landing, threatening its potential appearance at European air shows.

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