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Chakrit Samithinan |
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Chakrit Samithinan & Saichol Krai-amat |
The China Airshow in Zhuhai is held every two years and is largely a window on what China has to offer in terms of military aviation hardware for export. While in the past, Russia was always prominently represented in the flying display with one or both of their aerobatic teams and sometimes with fighter aircrafts, this year saw an almost total absence by Russia in the flying program, exception being the two new helicopters Mi-171A2 and Ansat which were on an Asian sales tour. The announced foreign participation was limited to Pakistan with the China designed JF-17 and the aerobatic team of the Saudi Hawks. Unfortunately, the Saudis cancelled their participation at short notice and thus, the daily flying display became more or less a domestic event, this to the disappointment of many spotters who came from far away to attend this show. One exception was the spirited display of the ATR-42. As is by now usual for Chinese airshows, there was a total absence of any aircraft of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) which were designed and/or built in Russia although these aircrafts still form the mainstay of the Chinese air defenses.
Airbus ATR-42 (Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
Guizhou FTC-2000G (Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
Guizhou FTC-2000G (Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
Guizhou FTC-2000G (Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
China Airshow 2018
With the focus of the daily flying demonstrations being almost exclusively on Chinese aircrafts, expectations were high that the AG 600 water bomber, which had the first landing and take-off on water 10 days earlier, would be shown in the air. This was not to be. Therefore, the novelties were a thrust vector development of the J-10 fighter aircraft which is called J-10B TVC and the appearance of a new Chinese Aerobatic team called Red Falcons, flying with eight K-8 jet trainers. Together with the well-known 1st August aerobatic team with their J-10s, they were the opening acts of the daily flying program. The J-10B TVC test bed flew only on the opening day and showed some mild thrust vector manoeuvres which were a reflection of the early days of flight testing. As already seen two years ago, the Guizhou JL-9, also known as FTC 2000G lightweight multirole combat aircraft, gave daily demonstrations with a view to attract potential customers in Africa and elsewhere. Finally, the JF-17 of the Pakistani Air Force was also in action every day.
Red-Falcons team (Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
Red-Falcons team (Picture courtesy Saichol Krai-amat)
Red-Falcons team (Picture courtesy Saichol Krai-amat)
Red-Falcons team (Picture courtesy Saichol Krai-amat)
Red-Falcons team (Picture courtesy Saichol Krai-amat)
Xian Y-20 (Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
Xian Y-20 (Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
Chengdu J-10B TVC (Picture courtesy Saichol Krai-amat)
Chengdu J-10B TVC (Picture courtesy Saichol Krai-amat)
Chengdu J-10B TVC (Picture courtesy Saichol Krai-amat)
1st August aerobatic team
(Picture courtesy Saichol Krai-amat)
(Picture courtesy Saichol Krai-amat)
(Picture courtesy Saichol Krai-amat)
(Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
(Picture courtesy Saichol Krai-amat)
(Picture courtesy Saichol Krai-amat)
(Picture courtesy Saichol Krai-amat)
(Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
(Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
(Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
(Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
(Picture courtesy Saichol Krai-amat)
Chengdu J-20
The highlight of the show was clearly China’s indigenous Stealth fighter, the J-20. While just showing a glimpse of it two years ago with two 20 seconds fly-pasts, the undisputed pride of the PLAAF was in flying action on most days, either with two, three or on closing day with four aircrafts. Their show, while still tame, was a lot longer and more attractive than two years ago and the photographers were given plenty of opportunities to take nice pictures.
(Picture courtesy Saichol Krai-amat)
(Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
(Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
(Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
(Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
(Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
(Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
(Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
(Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
(Picture courtesy Saichol Krai-amat)
(Picture courtesy Saichol Krai-amat)
(Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
(Picture courtesy Saichol Krai-amat)
(Picture courtesy Saichol Krai-amat)
Static park
The static park was again a strictly Chinese affair with any Russian-designed aircrafts prominently absent. The J-31 fighter was nowhere to be seen even though there were rumors that China will offer this aircraft to Pakistan. Not surprisingly, a fairly large part of the static display was reserved for Chinese-made drones for export which shows the increasing interest of many countries in this type of hardware.
At the time of writing this report, there was little information forthcoming whether any aircraft sales materialized during the show. Summarizing, this year’s flying program was largely a domestic event with relatively short display hours which will have disappointed many visitors who expected at least some foreign participation.
Avic AG 600 (Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
Avic AG 600 (Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
Xian JH-7A (Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)
Shaanxi Y-9 (Picture courtesy Chakrit Samithinan)