Quote:
Originally Posted by TLAM Strike
The PRC had been flying Licence Built versions of the Dauphin since the 1980s as the Z-9 series of aircraft.
In all honestly I think the Chinese are at the point where they are not copying as much as just building new with what they have already learned. They know and have lots of experience with Fenestron rotors, so it make sense that that is what they built, they have lots of experience with the Z-9 airframe so it makes sense they would build a Gunship out of it.
Their gear looks like ours and our allies gear because it's simply the proper way to build it, and they are expanding out of the gear they have bought from overseas so there is going to be a distinct design similarity.
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I was just about to say something like that, this looks like just another upgrade of the Z-9. I was kind of hoping they'd brought out the WZ-10, now that thing looks familiar
Still, this is how a lot of nations have started their aircraft industry, you only have to look at the Soviets and the B-29/Tu-4, heck we reverse engineered Jerry cans during the war!
They are learning, and learning fast, and like TLAM said, already they are putting what they have learnt into new designs based upon Western ideas and designs but not directly copying them. The J-XX is an example, it looks a lot like the F-22, but the Chinese have put a canard on the front and it's a lot bigger. It's probably not up to the standards of the F-22, but for a nation that was, less than ten years ago, flying mostly derivatives of the MiG-21 (and for that matter, still does), it makes you wonder what they'll be flying in ten years time...