Galery Image Z-10
Image : Aviators Z-10
Image : Action Z-10
Image : factory production of the Z-10
Image : Aviators Z-10
Image : Action Z-10
Image : Action off the Z-10
In accordance with the contract on last January, China has sent three attack helicopters Z-10 "Thunderbolt" to Pakistan, which is a close ally and become the largest buyer of weapons China, Popular Science reports.
Z-10 is capable of performing missions of anti-tank and air-to-air, currently at a Pakistan Army base in the Qasim/Dhamial to undergo testing, pilot training, maintenance and modification to operate in Pakistan's Khyber mountains.
As with other modern attack helicopter, the Z-10 brings a wide range of missiles and rockets, as a missile HJ-10 anti-tank guns and chain (chain gun) 23 mm, which can spew about 600 shell 8 oz per minute. Z-10 built by Changhe Aircraft Industries Corporation of China, with design input from Kamov Design Bureau in Russia.
With heavy weaponry is 23 mm cannons, and more than a ton of weapons such as missiles, pandu HJ-10 anti-tank rocket, 57 mm, and TY-90 missile air-to-air, the Z-10 attack helicopter is the front line of China, replacing Z-9 from the era of the cold war.
The Z-10 , also called WZ-10, is an attack helicopter developed by the People's Republic of China. It is designed primarily for anti-tank warfare missions but has secondary air-to-air capability as well. It was designed by Kamov design bureau of Russia under a contract by the Chinese government. It was further developed and flight tested by the 602nd Research Institute under Wu Ximing and is being built by Changhe Aircraft Industries Corporation (CAIC).
Nicknames of characters in the Chinese classic novel Water Margin have been used to name Z-10 and its smaller comrade Harbin Z-19: Z-10 is called Fierce Thunderbolt (Pi Li Huo) , the nickname of Qin Ming, while Z-19 is called Black Whirlwind (Hei Xuan Feng), the nickname of Li Kui.
Development
Early exploration
In 1979, the Chinese military studied the problem of countering large armour formations. It concluded that the best conventional solution was to use attack helicopters. Eight Aérospatiale Gazelle armed with Euromissile HOT were procured for evaluation.
By the mid-1980s, the Chinese decided a dedicated attack helicopter was required. At the time, they used civilian helicopters converted for the military; these were no longer adequate in the attack role, and suitable only as scouts. Following this, China evaluated the Agusta A129 Mangusta, and in 1988 secured an agreement with the USA to purchase AH-1 Cobras and a license to produce BGM-71 TOW missiles; the latter was cancelled following the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and the resulting arms embargo. The colour revolutions prevented the purchase of attack helicopters from Eastern Europe in 1990 and 1991; Bulgaria and Russia rejected Chinese offers to purchase the Mil Mi-24.
While attempting to import foreign designs failed, war games determined that attack helicopters had to be commanded by the army, rather than the air force. This led to the formation of the People's Liberation Army Ground Force Aircraft (PLAGFAF), with an initial strength of 9 Harbin Z-9. The PLAGFAF conducted tactical experiments that would help define the future Z-10's requirements. Research also decided that anti-tank missiles like the BGM-71 TOW were inadequate, and favoured an analogue to the AGM-114 Hellfire. These findings ensured the Z-10 would be based around the new missile.
Medium helicopter program
The Gulf War highlighted the urgent need for attack helicopters, and revalidated the assessment that a purpose-built design was needed. (At the time, the Chinese military depended on armed utility helicopters such as the Changhe Z-11 and Harbin Z-9.) Also, it demonstrated that the new attack helicopter would need to be able to defend itself against other helicopters and aircraft. The military perceived that once the new attack helicopter entered service, the existing helicopters would be used as scouts.
The Armed Helicopter Developmental Work Team (AHDWT)) was formed to develop a new medium helicopter design, as opposed to basing the new design on the light helicopters then in service. The 602nd and 608th Research Institutes started development of the 6-ton class China Medium Helicopter (CHM) program[9] in 1994. A secret contract was signed with the Kamov design bureau of Russia to design and verify the helicopter airframe and propulsion.
The program was promoted as a civilian project, and was able to secure significant Western technical assistance, such as from Eurocopter (rotor installation design consultancy), Pratt & Whitney Canada (PT6C turboshaft engine) and Agusta Westland (transmission). The Chinese concentrated on areas where it could not obtain foreign help.
Attack helicopter program
In 1998, the 602nd Research Institute proposed to either separate the armed helicopter program from the medium helicopter program, or devote all resources to the armed helicopter program. The 602nd Research Institute's called its proposed armed helicopter design the WZ-10, with some sources outside of China calling it the Z-X armed helicopter. As a result, most of the resource went to the Z-10, although the medium helicopter program continued with reduced priority; the medium helicopter could continue to develop technology used by both military and civilian aircraft.
The Z-10 program was called the Special Armed Project., a short form for Special Use Armed Helicopter Project. Development was kept under stricter secrecy than the Chengdu J-10 fighter. Nearly ¥ 4 billion was initially invested and the WZ-1- became one of the most important programs begun in the 9th 5-year plan.
Publically the 602nd Research Institute was assigned as the chief designer to promote the illusion of it being a domestically developed attack helicopter, while Harbin Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation (HAMC) of China Aviation Industry Corporation II (AVIC II) was assigned as the primary manufacturer. Nearly four dozen other establishments participated in the program. In the summer of 1999, AVIC II began to use a CAMC Z-8 to test newly developed Z-10 sub-systems. In autumn of the same year, a Harbin Z-9 was added to the test aircraft inventory. These tests concentrated on sub-systems such as the fire-control systems, HOTAS controls and navigation systems.
South Africa provided limited help in the area of flight stability based on experience from designing the Denel Rooivalk. South African assistance ceased in 2001.
New manufacturer
In 2000, the Chinese again attempted to obtain a Russian attack helicopter, but the deal for the Kamov Ka-50 fell apart just as the Mil Mi-28 deal several years earlier. The repeated failures in obtaining foreign attack helicopters reinforced feelings that China had no choice but to ignore foreign options and develop its own such aircraft and work on the Z-10 accelerated. In the same year, HAMC transferred most of its production responsibilities to CAIC of AVIC II. The official reason given was excessive workload; HAMC was busy producing the HC120 and Harbin Z-9, as well as other fixed-wing aircraft such as the Harbin Y-12, and thus was stretched to the limit. However, many speculated that HAMC was not performing well enough due to rigid and ineffective Soviet-style management practices, believed to have caused the company to go into debt.
Although HAMC was in the process of reform, which finally succeeded, the government and military were weary and impatient. The SH-5 factory had become very profitable after its successful restructuring and reform, but it had to get out of the aircraft manufacturing business for good, manufacturing pressurized tanks and other specialized containers. It was decided that the Z-10 program was too important to be run by HAMC, so a more stable contractor was sought and CAIC was selected. HAMC still retained responsibility for production of certain sub-systems and components, for which it could utilize experience gained from manufacturing parts for foreign helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft such as the Embraer ERJ 145 family.
In May 2002, the Z-10 tail rotor and some other components were tested on the ground by the 602nd Research Institute. In April 2003, a Z-10 prototype completed its maiden flight at Lumeng. airfield, the airfield having been assigned to CAIC for such use. According to Chinese sources, the initial test flights were concluded on December 17, 2003, whereas according to other sources they were completed nine months earlier in March 2003. According to Jane's Information Group, a total of 3 prototypes had completed over 400 hours of test flights by this time. By 2004 3 more prototypes were built, for a total of 6, and a second stage of test flights were concluded on December 15, 2004. In one of the test flights the future commander-in-chief of the People's Liberation Army Ground Force Air Force (PLAGAF), Song Xiangsheng , was on board the prototype. A third stage of intensive test flights followed, taking place during both day and night. By January 2006 weaponry and sensor tests, including firing of live ammunition, were taking place.
Prototypes and a small number of pre-production aircraft are in service with the Chinese military for evaluation. The design is undergoing continuous minor modification and upgrade based on the feedback.
Amphibious role
In March 2014, the PLA released pictures of a Z-10 helicopter conducting deck trials with a People's Liberation Army Navy Type 072A-class landing ship. The purpose may be to qualify the helicopter on ships to provide air support for landing parties launched from the ship. Type 072A-class ships have a helipad but no hangar or support facilities for the aircraft on board. The Z-10 may also be qualified on the larger Type 071 amphibious transport dock.
Design
The Kamov design bureau was contracted to perform the development work under a secret contract. Kamov worked with the Chinese to establish base specifications, such as weight, speed and payload capacity after which they had full freedom to design the helicopter. Kamov designed, tested and verified the helicopter design, after which it was provided to the Chinese team. Although designed in Russia the prototype construction, flight testing and further development was performed by the Chinese.[1][2][3][4]
Wu Ximing of the 602nd Research Institute, one of the Chinese top scientists involved in the 863 Program was publicly credited with being the chief designer of the Z-10, in an attempt to preserve the secrecy of the Kamov contract. Wu had earlier participated in the designs of the armed version of transport helicopters Z-8A and WZ-9. In order to complete the necessary development, the 602nd Research Institute and CAIC had jointly built a new engineering design center, industrial simulator, aircraft engine ground test center, fatigue laboratory, and rotary test platform (nicknamed as Iron Bird Platform. In the end of 2001, the final test was completed on the full-scale rotary test platform, paving the way for test flights.
Composite material is widely used in the Z-10 but China faced difficulties in this field, particularly in the area of survivability during crashes. Huge efforts were spent to domestically develop composite materials able to provide comparable levels of survivability to Western counterparts. This achievement earned a 2nd place in the Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND) progress reward.
Avionics (aircraft related)[edit]
The main contractor of the avionics of Z-10 is the 613th Research Institute, which was responsible for integrating all of the avionics subsystems provided by subcontractors. Although foreign technologies are utilized (particularly French and Israeli, as rumored), this is limited to hardware only. All software applicable to Z-10 are completely indigenously developed by China on its own. Reportedly, the most time consuming part of the software engineering for Z-10 was to develop all of the mathematic models needed for Z-10. Instead of using French standard DIGIBUS, Z-10 is built to Chinese GJV289A standard, the Chinese equivalent of MIL-STD-1553B. The adaptation of western military standard means that western weaponry can be readily deployed on Z-10, and the developer claims that all it needed was to add a module or interface to accomplish this. The ease of being compatible with multiple weaponry would also help to expand the export market of Z-10 in the future.
Flight instrumentation
There are two configurations of the flight instrumentation for Z-10, one developed from similar foreign system (rumored to be French), and the other one is indigenously developed, and both configurations share the same holographic head-up display. The difference in layout between the two configurations is that in one configuration, there are three color LCD multi-function displays (MFD), while in the other, these are replaced by two larger LCD MFDs. It’s not clear which one is originated from foreign system and which is indigenously developed, but it’s reported that the practice of having different configurations thanks to the modular design is for export purposes, to fit the potential customer countries’ pilots’ habits.
Z-10 is also the very first Chinese helicopter that adopts HOTAS, but a traditional conventional control system had been developed in parallel as a backup, just as the case of cockpit MFDs, and for exactly the same reason why two configurations of flight instrumentation were developed in parallel. The erroneous claim of installing Russian K-36/37 ejection seat in the cockpit of Z-10 proved to be false, and the survival of pilots in emergency landings depends on the crash worthiness of the helicopter. To counterbalance the weight of the armor protecting the pilots, flight instrumentation panel is the place where composite material is mostly used, as in the case of the dashboard of automobiles, where plastic material concentrates. One of the greatest challenges was to find the right composite material that is fit to use, while at the same time, also meets the safety standard so that during a fire, the pilots would not be knocked out by the toxic fume released by the burning composite material.
Navigation
Unlike previous Chinese helicopters, in which the different navigational systems on board were used independently, the navigational systems of Z-10 are fully integrated, and these include a Ring laser gyroscope, which will be replaced in the future by an Fibre optic gyroscope currently under development, once it becomes available. A radar altimeter currently installed on Z-10 is fully interchangeable with the laser altimeter. Early units of Z-10 have a pulse Doppler navigational radar which only had.
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