Naval Air: Folding Wings on Chinese Bomber

Archives

November 13, 2006: Some Chinese JH-7 naval bombers have been spotted sporting an interesting modification; folding wings. This sort of thing is only done for large aircraft you want to operate from an aircraft carrier. The JH-7 is a 27 ton, twin engine aircraft, with a 40 foot wingspan. The JH7 entered service a decade ago, and about fifty of them are available. Mass production is delayed because the aircraft was designed to use a British engine. China thought it could reverse-engineer this engine, but was unable to do so. Now China is trying to get a proper production license from the British engine manufacturer, so that it can build more JH-7s. Using some of these aircraft for developing folding wing technology seems a worthwhile approach, as the aircraft may have to be abandoned if the engine production license cannot be obtained.

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close