Kawasaki XC-2 flies


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Kawasaki XC-2 flies

Posted by Bradley Perrett at 1/27/2010 12:59 PM CST

The Kawasaki Heavy Industries XC-2, formerly C-X, made its first flight on Jan. 26. A rather well done video has been posted on YouTube.

The aircraft is of about the same size as the A400M and the old Lockheed C-141. The engines are GE CF6-80C2s and major airframe parts are shared with the Kawasaki XP-1 maritime patroller.

Surprisingly, that includes the wing. The designers adapted it to the different speed regimes of the two aircraft simply by altering the sweep angle.

The combined development cost of the two projects is reportedly 340 billion yen ($3.8 billion).

Comments (10) | Permanent Link

Tags: Kawasaki, XC-2, Japan, GE

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Loader2088 wrote:

Sure a lot less drama with this program than the A400M.

1/27/2010 1:34 PM CST

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ghemago wrote:

Why it's not a competitor ot the A400M?
CF6-80C2... nothing newer available even in classic architectures?

1/27/2010 2:49 PM CST

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jetcal1 wrote:

CF6-80C2... low risk, off the shelf and probably inexpensive.

You have to wonder if there there aren't some Kawasaki salesmen out there quietly beating the bush right now.

1/27/2010 3:09 PM CST

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Graham Warwick wrote:

Not sure if Japan yet allows sales of military aircraft, even airlifters, but Kawasaki has talked about commercial derivatives of both the XC-2 and XP-1 - the YC-X 37t-payload freighter and YP-X 120- to 150-passenger airliner.

On the CF6-80C2, when it was selected for the C-X in 2003 it was as good as anything available. The competition was the PW4000 and Trent 500. Japan's vice minister of defence during the selection was subsequently imprisoned for taking brides from Yamada, GE's agent in Japan at the time. GE denied any wrongdoing and severed its links with Yamada.

1/27/2010 4:18 PM CST

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George Zip wrote:

The CF6 was amongst a plethora of options considered for the A400M. Despite all the problems encountered during development, the quad-TP400 configuration offers capabilities unattainable with turbofan propulsion, especially in the area of Kosovo-style steep approaches.

1/27/2010 10:59 PM CST

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Sunho wrote:

The CF6 also powers Japan's 4 E-767s and 4 KC-767Js.

1/28/2010 5:52 AM CST

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Sunho wrote:

During the Japan Aerospace in October 2008, the JASDF showed a slide illustrating the XC-2's capability compared with the old Kawasaki C-1 and C-130H.

According to that slide, the XC-2 can carry 12t payload up to 6500km, equivalent to the distance from central Japan to northern Australia. The C-1, whose max payload is just 8t, can cover only 1700km, while the C-180H's figure is 4000km.

1/28/2010 6:23 AM CST

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Sunho wrote:

Another slide showed that while the XC-2 would be able to fly non-stop from Japan to East Timor carrying 12t payload, a C-130H with 5t payload would have to make three refueling stops (Okinawa, the Philippines and Sulawesi in Indonesia) to reach East Timor.

1/28/2010 6:29 AM CST

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ghemago wrote:

Thanks Sunho!

1/28/2010 9:04 AM CST

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