Posted on 11/17/2014 7:35:19 AM PST by SeekAndFind
On Tuesday, on the eve of China’s 10th Zhuhai Airshow, California-based Coptervision placed an order for 20 Y-12s, a 19-seat turboprop.
“This purchase marks the first time for any Chinese-made planes to enter an advanced market, and the U.S. has the highest standards, so this testifies to the achievement of Chinese aircraft manufacturing,” said Li Xianzhe of Avicopter to the South China Morning Post. Avicopter is the general aviation subsidiary of the Y-12’s manufacturer, Aviation Industry Corp. of China.
Four of the Coptervision orders are for the Y-12F. This model, the most recent version of the Chinese workhorse, has not yet received FAA certification. The utility plane will get that “in half a year hopefully,” Li says. The balance of the order is for the Y-12E, certified in 2006. The Y-12 is the only FAA-certified Chinese civil aircraft, according to Li.
China, which hasn’t yet been able to make a car good enough for the American market, is now selling planes there. So is the Y-12 safe to ferry tourists over the Grand Canyon, Coptervision’s primary intended use for its Chinese purchases?
The Y-12 has crashed numerous times outside China, but most of the incidents do not appear to be the result of problems with the craft itself. There is probably nothing so reliable in the air as a time-tested model.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
I wonder how well they’ll sell.
I suspect it will see the same way everything else made in China will sell.
It will sell week, and drive out American businesses.
China is taking over every business. Conservatives need to get back on America’s side.
Somehow.
We help nobody by helping China.
Never bothered me to buy stuff from Japan. All their electronics worked well and it seems forever.
China's electronics...like I said...cr**.
If they are going to MAKE planes for any other country but themselves, they might consider making the seats bigger. HOWEVER, that would COST. Lol. TEENY-TINY is cheaper. Now WHICH will they choose?
-- Cheap TEENY-TINY?
-- Expensive BigButts?
Be warned, folks. Their prices will be dirt cheap but you do get what you pay for. So leave the Bigbutt husband/wife/kids at home and GO for it if you butt is skinny. :o)
All that said, China now rules internationally.
Just between America and China, we now run a 300 billion trade deficit every year.
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html
19 seats ?
Shoot...the old tail dragger could carry 25 or 30.
As someone who spends 4 month a year in China their airlines and aircraft are much nicer than United or American Airlines. Not as good as Delta or most international carriers...and yes they have room for big butts... :)
Oh and the cabin crews...attentive, helpful, much younger and far better looking than any US carrier.
I’m skeptical of Chinese aircraft, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they had stuff better than American Airlines. The last AA flight I took was a plane that didn’t have emergency oxygen, so we had a ceiling of 10k feet...and flew through the roughest air I ever have...some of the plastic covers above our heads fell off etc.
But it gets worse - this plane was clearly only capable of making domestic flights. Yet it had ashtrays in the seat arms. They had been tack welded shut, but good grief, wasn’t smoking banned on domestic flights a quarter century ago? How old were the seats on this plane?
It looks like a Fokker to me.
If it ain’t Boeing, I ain’t going.
So no thanks for their aircraft, at lease for ten years...
That what I thought. It looks like any other tree topper I won’t fly in either.
Last I heard C-123s couldn’t be flown in the US due to not being able to fly on one engine.
“I wonder how well they’ll sell.”
Probably fairly well...
The last US-Built aircraft in that category, the Beach 1900, stopped production in 2002, 12 years ago. The lack of replacement aircraft has caused several small towns to lose commercial air service, likely forever.
It does have Pratt & Whitney Canada engines, so that isn’t a factor. They could probably sell 100+ of these fairly quickly, just in the US, as 1900 replacements.
“It will sell week, and drive out American businesses.”
No one has built an aircraft in this category in America, in 12 years...
The basic airframe has been in production for more than 30 years. The turboprop engine is the PT-6, the most reliable turboprop engine in the world.
Canada has already bought 35 and had them outfitted for bush flying.
These should be very cost efficient aircraft to operate, and very safe if maintained by US maintenance crews to US standards.
I would love to fly one, and have no problem riding in one.
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