China’s New ‘Black Hawk’ Helicopter Takes Maiden Flight
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The new type of medium-lift, general-purpose helicopter completed its test flight in an airport in the country's northeast on Monday morning, the official CCTV announced later Monday evening.
The report came after a photo of the aircraft emerged from popular domestic military forum cjdby.net, prompting a flurry of speculation from tech-savvy military enthusiasts about its potential performance and efficiency.
Dubbed by amateurs as "Z-20", a codename that is in line with the naming pattern of previous military helicopter models, the aircraft’s exterior is similar to the US-made Sikorsky UH-60, better known as the “Black Hawk”.
The PLA utility helicopter is believed to have a capacity of 10 tonnes, putting it between the categories of agile attack helicopters and heavy transportation helicopters, military commentator Du Wenlong said during the CCTV news programme.
“It fills a blank for the Chinese military force,” deputy professor Fang Bing of the PLA National Defence University said, when asked about the new hardware's significance.
It was unclear how many units of the new model would be added to the PLA's fleet.
But the military experts believe the new helicopter’s five-blade propeller, unlike Black Hawk’s four, gives it more superior performance in high-altitude regions, such as southwestern China’s vast Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which is home to a restive Tibetan population and is flanked by India, with which it has long-standing border tensions. [via]
