The Chang'e-6 probe is about to complete its launch mission at the Wenchang launch site in Hainan, and is expected to challenge the South Pole of the Moon-Aitken Basin in the first half of the year and bring 2,000 grams of lunar soil back to Earth, marking a major breakthrough in China's lunar exploration program.
According to CCTV, the delivery of the probe was jointly completed by China's domestically produced Y-20 transport aircraft and An-124 transport aircraft leased from Russia.
Although the performance of the domestic Y-20 transport aircraft has caught up with the Russian Il-76 transport aircraft and is comparable to the American C-17, the An-124 is still a super large transport aircraft, with a take-off weight of more than 400 tons and an ultimate load of 150 tons, and a theoretical range of more than 1600
0 km, which is much more than the transport aircraft of the Il-76 class. The An-124 also has a larger capacity, compared to the 50-ton Il-76 with a cargo compartment of 3.4 meters.
The cargo compartment width of the An-124 and Il-76 is 6.4 meters and smaller size, respectively, which means that the An-124 can easily carry large cargo such as main battle tanks and **, while the cargo space of the Il-76 is limited and difficult to accommodate large cargo (just like when the Y-20 rushed to the aid of the Pakistani Railway Brothers).
as shown on the screen of the open cargo hold). This also explains why the An-124 needs to be chartered to transport Chang'e-6. Although the number of Y-20s is quite significant, larger components still need to rely on the An-124 for transportation, given the cargo hold specifications.
Russia's current strategic airlift capacity, in fact, only the An-124 is competent, although Russia only has about 10 An-124s, but these fleets have unrivaled carrying capacity, and even dare to accept business from Western countries, so they are very profitable (such as the An-124 that transports aircraft).
However, after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Russia's relations with the West deteriorated, and an An-124 that took off from China was even seized by the Canadian side, and Trudeau later claimed that he would transfer it to Ukraine.
As Russia has abandoned cooperation with Ukraine in recent years, it has begun to independently develop future large transport aircraft, including the Il-106 with a payload of 120 tons and a large transport aircraft with a payload of up to 180 tons.
This is also a warning to China, which means that it must develop its own domestic large transport aircraft in the future, ensuring that the payload can reach more than 100 tons, and have a more spacious cabin volume to meet the transportation needs of large items.
The aviation industry has long stated that the Chinese will not be satisfied with models such as the Y-20, but will continue to work hard to build better aircraft (such as the Il-106). Therefore, we have reason to believe that after the Y-20, there will be more advanced domestic large transport aircraft.
China will also be able to develop its own models like the C-5 and An-124.