The Y-8 (Yunshu-8, or Yun-8) four-engine turboprop transport aircraft produced by Shaanxi Aircraft Company in Hanzhong, based on the Russian Antonov An-12 (NATO codename: Cub). The Y-8 is China’s most popular civilian transport/cargo aircraft, with over 100 examples built in over 20 versions. As well as serving as a military transport, the aircraft has also been converted for a range of special roles including helicopter carrier, airborne early warning and control (AEW&C), maritime surveillance and patrol, electronic warfare, electronic intelligence, C3I, radar testbed, UAV carrier, etc.
China imported 12 examples of the An-12 turboprop transport aircraft from the Soviet Union between 1966~68. Highly impressed by the performance of the aircraft, the Chinese military and Ministry of Aeronautics (MoA) decided to build the aircraft locally under the designation Y-8. The reverse-engineering of the An-12 was initially carried out by Xi’an-based 603 Aircraft Design Institute and Xi’an Aircraft Factory, but the production was transferred to Hanzhong-based Shaanxi Aircraft Factory in 1975. The Y-8 made its first flight on 25 December 1974, and was approved for small initial batch production in February 1980.
The first modified variant Y-8A designed to carry the S-70C “Black Hawk” helicopter entered the PLAAF service in November 1985. Later Shaanxi developed the improved Y-8C featuring a fully pressured cabin under the assistance of Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin) in the late 1980s. In the late 1990s, the Y-8 was further improved under the help of Ukrainian Antonov Aeronautical Scientific-Technical Complex (ASTC). The latest Y-8F600 jointly developed with Antonov featured both Ukrainian and Western avionics and engine technologies.
The Y-8 has high-mounted wings with drooping outer wing panels, back-tapered leading edges, straight trailing edges, and blunt tips. Four Zhuzhou Wojiang-6 (WJ-6) turboprop engines are mounted under the wings' leading edges. The round, slender body features a stepped cockpit and glassed-in nose, with landing gear pods which bulge at lower body midsection. The tail flats are unequally tapered with blunt tips and mounted high on the fuselage. The fin is tapered with a blunt tip and a step in the leading edge. The Y-8 differs to the An-12 in its longer, sharper glass-in nose that was borrowed from the H-6 bomber design. The basic variant Y-8 only had the front-half of its fuselage pressurised, while the improved Y-8C has a fully pressurised fuselage.
The Y-8 is fitted with radio communications and navigations, Doppler navigation radar, autopilot, radio compass, altitude radio altimeter, maker beacon receiver, rear warning receiver, and identification friend or foe (IFF). The aircraft is capable of all-weather, day/night flight. Later variants are also fitted with Western avionics for commercial flight, including flight director system (FDS), air data computer, VOR/ILS, comparing warning, air traffic control receiver, UHF radio, weather radar, Litton Omega navigation system, Bendix/King HF communication, Sundsstrand universal flight data recorder (UFDR), and cockpit voice recorder.
The Y-8’s cargo compartment that can rapidly be reconfigured for the carriage of passengers, paratroops, or stretchers. The size of the cargo compartment is 13.5m X 3m X 2.4m, which can accommodate 96 armed soldiers; or 82 paratroops; or 60 stretchers plus 23 lightly wounded patients and 3 medics; or 16t containers; or 20t cargo. The cargo compartment is equipped with a two electric winches and a 2.3t payload overhead cargo system where the cargo can be suspended from an electrically powered rail. Rollers in the floor of the cargo compartment enable quick and easy handling of cargo pallets and can be removed to leave a flat surface if needed.
The aircraft can be committed for high- and low-altitude airdrops of troops, vehicles and cargo. The basic variant Y-8 can air drop pallets of 1m, 2m, 4m and 6m size. A single maximum airdrop is 7.4t. A pallet can be air dropped within 6 seconds. Early variants had two side-hinged cargo compartment doors, while on later variants these were replaced by a single ramp cargo door for fast loading/unloading. The basic variant Y-8 inherited the An-12’s tail turret which mounts a twin 23mm cannon, but this was removed on later variants.
