Y-10 civil passenger jet - Program
The development of a large long range airliner in Shanghai was brewed in early 1970s with the approval of Comrade Zhou Enlai. On August 21, 1970, the National Planning Commissin, and the Defence Industry Leading Group of the Military Commission of CCCPC appoved in principle the "Report on the Transport Trial Production in Shanghai" which was prepared by the Aviation Industry Leading Group.
At this point, the Y-10 passenger aircraft project, code-named "Project 708", was officially launched, named after the year and month when the document was issued. At the same time as the "708 Project", there were also the "701" (Long March 4 rocket foundation), the "718" ("Yuanwang" missile satellite launch and measurement ship), and the "728" (Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant) projects. These projects later became major national weapons.
Since then the project was put into the government plan. After some discussions on the conceptual definition, a general design concept was proposed. On June 27, 1973, the State Council and the Military Commission of CCCPC formally approved a report on development of a large airliner which was jointly prepared by Shanghai municipal government and the National Planning Commission. The development of the Y-10 airliner was thus started in Shanghai.
The Y-10 is a large airliner and was the heaviest of the airplanes so far developed in China. The preparation for setting up a design organ in Shanghai was started in September 1970. Both the MAI and the Air Force sent their outstanding designers to the organ which had only 300 people in its early stage and then 800 people when the Aircraft Design Institute was established in 1973. In 1978 the institute was renamed as the Shanghai Aircraft Design and Research Institute. Ma Fengshan was appointed director of the institute.
Due to the close cooperation between the MAI and Shanghai municipality and the hard work of the staff the design drawings of the Y-10 were completed in June 1975. The intense prototype production began immediately in the Shanghai Aircraft Factory and a Y-10 for the static test was made available in September 1976. A full size airframe destructive test was carried out in the Aircraft Structure Strength Research Institute on November 23, 1978. The airframe was broken at predicted place of left wing when the applying load was increased to 100.2 per cent. The test result was in agreement with the theoretical analysis and proved that the aircraft strength was in conformity with the design requirement.
In 1968, after the successful test flight of China's H-6, Premier Zhou Enlai proposed: "Can we design a jet passenger aircraft based on the H-6?" This proposal has a basis. The Soviet Union's first large jet passenger aircraft, the Tu-104, was designed and manufactured based on that bomber. At that time, the Foreign Minister, Marshal Chen Yi, also said: "As the Foreign Minister, I cannot take my own plane when I go abroad. My status is different from that of other countries."
Deputy Chief Designer Cheng Bushi said that at that time, New China was often looked down upon by foreigners because it did not have domestically produced large aircraft. Cheng Bushi, deputy chief designer of the Y-10: When Premier Zhou visited Europe in the 1960s, we were flying a propeller plane. Some people abroad laughed at us, saying that China had not yet entered the jet age. Some people even said that China was an "eagle without wings." In 1970, Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou both talked about developing large aircraft, and the location was set in Shanghai.
On the eve of the National Day in 1969, when Chairman Mao Zedong passed by Shanghai, relevant Shanghai personnel reported to him the situation of Shanghai's industrial production, including the situation of rocket manufacturing and rocket launching. After listening, Mao Zedong asked: "Have you made airplanes?" In late July 1970, Chairman Mao Zedong raised this topic again when he inspected work in Shanghai. He said: "Shanghai has such a good industrial and technological foundation, it can build airplanes."
Therefore, after Chairman Mao Zedong issued specific instructions for the large passenger aircraft, everyone from top to bottom immediately took action. On August 21, 1970, with the approval of Premier Zhou Enlai, the National Planning Commission and the Military Commission's National Defense Industry Leading Group approved the "Report on the Trial Production of Transport Aircraft in Shanghai" proposed by the Aviation Industry Leading Group, issued a task to Shanghai to develop large passenger aircraft and their engines, and included it in the national plan.
The development of the "Yun-10" was jointly led by Shanghai and the Third Ministry of Machine Building, and was specifically responsible for by the 640th Institute and the Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Plant. At that time, more than 300 factories, research institutes, and colleges and universities from 21 provinces, cities, and autonomous regions across the country participated in the development of the "Yun-10" aircraft. Everyone was very enthusiastic and devoted themselves to the work day and night.
Cheng Bushi noted: "The Shanghai Municipal Government has a computing center, but the amount of calculations we do is too large, so it takes up time used by other units. The time after 12 o'clock at night and before 6 o'clock in the morning is for research in the aircraft design office, so we often go out in the middle of the night to calculate until the dawn, and then ride a bicycle back.
"Our work site is an abandoned terminal building of Longhua Airport. In summer, there is grass outside Longhua Airport, and there are many mosquitoes. We use newspapers to wrap the area and then draw the drawings, on the one hand to avoid mosquito bites, and on the other hand to prevent sweat dripping on the drawings. We have about hundreds of thousands of A4 drawings, which are about the size of several football fields when spread out. There is a joke abroad that when the weight of these documents, materials, and test reports piled up is about the same as the take-off weight of the aircraft, the aircraft is almost ready to take off."
After the launch of the "708 Project", starting almost from scratch, the national system was mobilized and immediately entered a rhythm of "seizing the day and not one second". In September 1970, the first batch of support personnel from the Third Ministry of Machine Building arrived in Shanghai, with Xiong Yan and Ma Fengshan as the heads of the design team.
In February 1972, at an office meeting of the Military Commission where the Aviation Industry Group reported, Ye Jianying pointed out that developing the 708 "is a matter for the entire nation and a glory for the Chinese people", "this is the first large aircraft and we need to select the better designers from across the country to review the design", "it will also be of great use in the military", and "postpone the development of the long-range bomber and concentrate our efforts on the 708 first".
In 1973, when someone proposed to buy the patent of the British VC-10 large passenger aircraft for trial production, Premier Zhou Enlai instructed in February 1974: "I agree not to buy this patent. We have enough imported aircraft varieties", thus ensuring that the independent development of the Y-10 would not be interfered with.
On January 15, 1972, the Central Military Commission approved the plan to install four engines on the wings of the Y-10 aircraft.
Based on the institutional advantages of national cooperation and the selfless efforts of all levels, it took only four years and eight months for the first static test aircraft to leave the factory in September 1976. This put China's large passenger aircraft on the same starting line as Airbus in Europe, and even surpassed Airbus' manufacturing speed in some aspects. The second Y-10 passenger aircraft made its first successful flight on September 26, 1980.
It took less than 10 years from project establishment to first flight of the Y-10. Moreover, this project was completely different from other aircraft models, with almost no basic conditions such as factory buildings, offices, materials, equipment, etc., and everything started from scratch.
The total cost of developing the Y-10 was 580 million yuan, while the cost of developing a large civilian passenger aircraft in the West at the same time was generally 1.5 to 2 billion US dollars.
