The Shanghai Y-10 was a medium to long range jet airliner built by the Shanghai Aircraft Research Institute. Powered by four Pratt & Whitney JT3D-7 turbofan engines, it was the first indigenous large aircraft built in China.
First flying on 26 September 1980, the Y-10 was used on 130 test flights, visiting various cities around the country. As a proof of concept that China could design and build its own aircraft, it was definitely a success.
Shanghai Y-10 Video
Following on from the video last week on the Boeing 314 flying boat, this week we look at the interesting Shanghai Y-10. The film is produced by the manufacturer and runs for a little under seven minutes. Happily it features English subtitles.
People usually accuse the Y-10 of being a copy of the Boeing 707. By that logic, the Douglas DC-8 and Convair 990 are also copies of the Boeing 707, so it isn’t really. It took ten years of design effort by the Chinese before the first flight.
Designed to seat up to 178 passengers, it had a maximum take-off weight of 110,227 kilograms and a range of 8,304 kilometres. Having a five man flight crew and four engines when the western world was introducing two man cockpits and long range twins meant it never really had a chance of commercial success.
Final flights took place in 1984, whereupon the aircraft was parked up at an airbase, where it sat until late 2017. Today, China is building its own aircraft again, with both the COMAC C919 and COMAC ARJ21 both currently flying.
Overall Thoughts
You’d be hard pressed to remember the Shanghai Y-10, since it never entered passenger service. Even so, I thought the video was interesting and different. At the very least you’ll learn the correct way to pronounce Chinese city names, if you don’t already know how to do so.
When heading over to China, you can visit the Shanghai Y-10 at its new home near the COMAC factory in Pudong. It was moved there and renovated at the start of 2018.
What did you think of the film? It is certainly an interesting look at the early 1980s in Chinese aviation. Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image via Comac America Corporation..
That’s one rare bird. I’ve seen a couple of pictures of it over the years but totally forgot about it until I saw this article. Thanks for the morning flashback!
Same here, it came to mind, “what’s that Chinese 707 called again…” and there was actually that video available and so here we are! haha!