Years ago, I saw a picture of an airplane-it was a copy of the Boeing 747-the Chinese had copied it, down to the last detail. Was this plane ever flown? I recall that there were reservations about the safety of this airplane, as the avionics were not made for it. Anyone know more?
I think any restrictions on selling high-tech products to ‘communist’ countries like China went away a while ago. So wouldn’t it be cheaper to just buy one from Boeing?
That may have killed the whole idea of building their own copy.
China bought a bunch of Boeing planes during the thawing of relations that came with Nixons visit in 1972. The first 747 flew in 1970, so there wasn’t a particularly large window between the time the 747 came on line and when China could buy at least some Boeing planes.
Are you talking about the Shanghai Y-10?
It was a copy of the Boeing 707, not 747, and also a lot of sources on the net say it wasn’t actually a reverse engineered copy of the 707 but was actually a legitimately engineered airplane that only superficially resembled the 707. I personally don’t know enough about it to say whether it really was a copy or not.
Wikipedia says 3 prototypes were built, other sites say anywhere between 2 and 4. The first was for static testing and couldn’t fly so that may explain some of the discrepancy in the numbers. The plane never went into production. The flying prototypes may have been used for a short time for government transport but all were retired fairly quickly.
The project started in the 1970s and was officially canceled in 1983.
Wikipedia has this to say about why it was never put into production:
That’s not the full story.
Two different companies were contracted to design the exterior paint and the interior colors but there was a lack of communication between the two.
The plane clashed.
The version I heard (which gives the same legitimacy as "a freind of my grandmother’s sister’s stepnephew’s wife’s sister):
Sometime in the 60’s, China (which always pays cash, unlike the USSR, which always “bought” stuff with purchase-specific “loans” from the US) came to Boeing and purchased several 707’s and BUNCHES of engines for them. Way too many engines - as in “never do any maintenane to the engine, just replace it with a new one” and you would still wear out the airframes (planes minus engines and instruments) before using up the engines.
Suspicions were raised.
Suspicions were confirmed when the western photogrphers were invited to watch the hangar door open to reveal the Chinese 707.
Which would not fly worth a damn - it was too heavy
Again, just the version I heard. The “way too many engines” part sounds credible - this was the 1960’s and China’s technology was the stuff Stalin had given them - and Mao wasn’t real keen on the idea of China-as-industrialized-global-power
Are you sure it was not just a picture of a 747 in the livery of a Chinese Airline? Which someone dubbed the Chinese 747 copy?
Thanks for the info. What would the ramifications be, if the Chinese had actually certified and put this aircraft into service? It seems like product piracy on a huge scale-imagine if the thing crashed!
This is substantially the same as the version I heard–except that I was told that the airplane’s center of gravity was too far aft and it flew poorly as a result.