Mil.huanqiu.com published a report on its interview with Chief Engineer Deng Jinghui, China’s top helicopter expert. According to Deng, through 66 years of hard efforts, China has had 12 platforms and over 60 types of helicopters. 
China’s new generation of helicopters adopts world advanced technology to achieve the capabilities of operation in all the various areas at all time and in all kinds of complicated weathers.
China has been able to achieve that in spite of foreign technical blockade.
For example, the advanced de-icing technology that prevent icing on the rotary wings of helicopter. For a long time only the US and France have mastery of such technology and been unwilling to pass it to any other country. When China asked France for help, French experts said that no matter how much China paid France, France was only willing to help China build one type of helicopter with de-icing technology.
Deng’s team has conducted research unswervingly and has finally mastered the technology for all Chinese helicopters that need such technology. Tests have proved that China’s technology is as good as that in the type of helicopter France has helped China to build with French technology.

For another example, the new fly-by-wire technology adopted only in America’s H-92 and UH-60M new type of Black Hawk and Russia’s Kazan Ansat helicopters. The flight control system using that technology is much lighter than conventional flight control. It greatly improves flight control, automatically helps stabilize a helicopter and prevent unsafe operation of a helicopter outside of its performance envelope. Without foreign help, Deng’s team has successfully developed and incorporated such technology in China’s newest helicopter.



Another advanced technology to achieve:

Z-19Q

    Z-19X MMW radar


Z-19 is world's first AESA milimeter wave radar on armored heli




A Chinese private enterprise has successfully purified the rare metal rhenium to manufacture the single crystal blade, which is crucial for the production of aircraft engines, CCTV.com reported on Sept. 3.
The rare metal was purified after a year and a half effort by Chengdu Aerospace Superalloy Technology Co. Ltd. in cooperation with the Hunan Research Institute for Nonferrous Metals.
The company discovered a mine with about 176 tons of rhenium in Shaanxi province in 2010, accounting for 7 percent of the world’s total reserves of the metal.



A report released by the U.S. Geological Survey shows that the explored reserve of rhenium in the earth’s crust is only about 2,500 tons, even less than that of rare elements. The price for each gram is about $31 to $46, which makes it as expensive as platinum.


Rhenium - A Rare Metal Critical to Modern Transportation

The metal is the main material for producing the single crystal blade, which is crucial for manufacturing aircraft engines, and the technology directly affects the performance of the engine.
Zhang Zheng, chairman of the company, put together a professional team through the country’s talent recruitment program.
Verified results show that the single crystal blade met Europe and U.S quality standards in terms of tensile properties and endurance performance at high temperatures.

The success makes the company China’s first to achieve mass production of the single crystal blade for manufacturing aircraft engines.
Aircraft engines, as one of the most complicated mechanical systems, should be able to work under high temperatures, high pressures, high rotation speeds, and high load; and be high power, light weight, long lasting, and highly reliable.
China has been faced with a hurdle of self-developing aircraft engines, because the U.S. and some Western countries have blocked certain exports such as rhenium to China for many years.

Post a Comment Blogger Disqus

 
 
Top