Shaanxi Aircraft Industry (Group) Co., Ltd
Shaanxi Aircraft Company

The Y-8 medium size medium range tranport aircraft is produced by Shanxi Aircraft Company, based on the Russian Antonov An-12. It is a fully pressurized aircraft equipped with four turboprops and tricycle landing gears with low pressure tires and disc brake system. Its spacious cargo compartment can accommodate out-sized cargo. Y8 series are flying in the sky with the spirit of "struggling, being realistic and innovative" of SAC people. SAC is now growing with research and development base of special and large-size aircraft.

Hanzhong, an ancient cultural city located on the beautiful Hanzhong basin, has long been called "a land of abundance". On 04 November 1969, chairman Mao Zedong and premier Zhou Enlai authorized a transport base built here. SAC--the biggest research and production base for transport aircraft, sprang up quickly. For more than four decades SAC people have made great efforts for its existence and development. At present, SAC has more than 10,000 employees, including 20 state-lever experts, 50 professor-level senior engineers, 1,300 engineers and senior engineers, more than 300 skilled technicians and senior technicians. They are working in close cooperation,aiming to give an impetus to development of SAC's technique together.

Status raised to Industry Group in 2001, at which time the Group had 6 subsidiary companies, 7 branch companies and 15 professional factories, covering manufacturing of aircraft, vehice and large technology equipment, construction and installation, transportation and business service, etc. By 2003, SAC, which covers an area of 3 million square meters, had total assets of 3,000 million yuan, with covered workspace that includes the largest final assembly building in China.

Strong competitive power is the guarantee for sustained development. SAC has the ability to design and manufacture large aircraft. Its technology center owns the first-level aircraft design, software and hardware sources. Master optical cable covers more than 85% of the scientific research and production area, and better information platfom and the widely-applied systems of the UG, CATIA, PDM and OA have greatly prompted the development of new production.

To rejuvenate China's aviation industry, SAC people worded their way through difficulties and have successively developed more than 20 kinds of Y8 aircraft successfully. The Y8 aircraft is so far the largest multi-purpose transport with widely developed types and great potentialities for improvement and modification in China. It is a four-turboprop-engine transport with maximum range of 5600km and maximum load of 20 tons. Y8, the widely used transport with its good performance and its safety and reliability, has been exported to several foreign countries while satisfying the domestic customers. Now, SAC has four kinds of civil aircrafts, Y8F100, Y8F200, Y8F400 and Y8F600 that are being developed. Y8F600 aircraft will be the major trunk aircraft in the future with its high-efficiency, low-noise and large loading capacity. SAC has developed. Y8F600 will be the major trunk aircraft in the future with its high efficiency,low noise and large loading capacity.

Through the construction of more than 40 years, especially during the period of "The Fifteen Conference", the comprehensive processing ability has come to a higher level. It owns all necessary means to make giant aircrafts, different large production factory buildings like the aircraft assembly factory builiing, component-assembling factory building, overall aircraft painting factory building, large surface-treatment and heat-treatment devices in China. It owns scores of large numerical control machines for making large aircraft component,a multitude of facilities and equipment for testing and checking the large aircrafts and special aircrafts. Through adjustment on industry distributions and integrated production base for developing and manufacturing the large and medium sized transport.

To ensure the products meet the customer's requirements on quality, SAC people in the policy "To concern the customers, do things well once, improve continuously and pursue perfect "all the time. The "Type Certificate"," Production License"and "Maintenance License" to three models of Y8 series have been awarded by CAAC. In 1996 and 2001, SAC passed the investigation of the New-age Quality System Certificate Center and got the "Military Industry Production Quality Certificate". In 2002, SAC passed the second examination of Military Quality System and was confirmed as "second-class unit for Military Industry Production".

SAC is not only a place to develop and manufacture high-tech products, but also a place to live and work in peacefully and contentedly. SAC people have been building their homeland year after year to pursue a better life. Education system, medical and health system, service system, dwelling system and material management system have become "Life-support" ones of SAC.

SAC is one of the few major Chinese aviation companies not to have significant work with either Airbus or Boeing. After failed negotiations with Boeing and Airbus, a group of six Chinese aerospace companies decided in late 1998 to build a regional passenger jet with either 58 or 76 seats and a range of up to 3,200 kilometers. The six companies are Harbin Aircraft Manufacturing, Xian Aircraft Industry Group, Shaanxi Aircraft Co., Shanghai Aviation Industrial Corp., Shanghai Aircraft Research Institute and the Xian Design and Research Institute.

On 09 October 2003 IBM and Dassault Systèmes announced that Shaanxi Aircraft Industry Group Company Ltd. (SAC), a subsidiary of China Aviation Industry Corporation II (AVIC II), will expand its Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) platform. SAC develops and manufactures medium-size, medium-range transport aircrafts. SAC will extend its PLM platform with SMARTEAM, a product data management (PDM) software from IBM PLM Solutions, developed by Dassault Systèmes. SMARTEAM will enable SAC to deploy an enterprise-wide PDM platform for collaboration and process management. It extends the existing SAC PLM platform that includes CATIA V5, IBM PLM Solutions' collaborative product development software, also developed by Dassault Systèmes.

On 19 September 2007, SAC and Antonov signed an agreement to set up in Beijing an engineering centre to work on design of the Y-8F600 freighter, improvements to the existing Y-8 and SAIC Y-5, and two further cargo projects: a 30-ton standard freighter and a four-engined, 60-ton amphibious cargo transport. Antonov first cooperation with China dates back 60 years ago, with the AN-2 Colt aircraft, built in China as the Y-5 transport. "Part of the center's onus will be to design the freighter version of China's own large plane, which was listed as a priority project in the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10)," AVIC II Vice-President Liang Zhenhe said. Shaanxi Aircraft will hold the controlling share in the joint venture, with the initial investment being about 10 million yuan ($1.29 million).

By 2019 Shaanxi Aircraft Industry (Group) Corporation Ltd (SAIC) under the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) was manufacturing special mission aircraft with its pulse assembly line. The advanced assembly line had been recently built, had a size of more than two soccer fields and fused digital, information-oriented and intelligence concepts, CCTV said, noting that compared to the traditional assembly workshops at SAIC, the new pulse assembly line is 30 percent more efficient in manufacturing aircraft and requires fewer workers. The pulse assembly line at SAIC has five stations, each is assigned with tasks of assembling certain components to its aircraft.

The establishment of a pulse assembly line is an indication that China's special mission aircraft have entered a mass-production phase. A pulse assembly line is only cost efficient when it produces a certain type of aircraft in large numbers, since the construction of such a line is expensive. For instance, as many as 10 fully assembled special mission aircraft including KJ-500 early warning aircraft and other surveillance aircraft could be seen parked in an open area at SAIC. Y-9 & special mission variants production still at high level. Allegedly taken on 20 December 2020, this image shows the facility of the Shaanxi Aircraft Corporation at Hanzhong with at least 15 KJ-500 AEW.

Chinese arms enterprises have been racing to keep up with their production schedule after resuming work following an extended Spring Festival holiday due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak with a key amphibious assault ship maker scrambling to outfit an "important" ship and aviation companies running test flights for newly built warplanes. Shaanxi Aircraft Industry (Group) Corporation Ltd under the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) was the first to send a new aircraft into the sky after resuming work on 10 February 2020, a little more than a week later than the original plan. With the support of the Chinese Air Force, the company successfully conducted a test flight for a newly built KJ-500 early warning aircraft.