Development
The People's Republic of China imported the Antonov An-24 from early in its production run and also negotiated licences for production of the aircraft and its engines. In 1966, Xi'an aircraft factory started the project of local production of An-24. The first Chinese-assembled An-24T had its maiden flight on 25 December 1970. Production was launched in 1977 at the Xi'an aircraft factory but progress was slow due to the deleterious effects of the Cultural Revolution, with a pre-production aircraft displayed to the public at Nanyuan air base, near Beijing, on 17 April 1982. WJ-5A1 turboprop engine was chosen as Y-7's power source. The first production aircraft was not flown until February 1984, illustrating the slow progress (eighteen years from licence to production).
The Chinese aircraft equated to the An-24RV, having a full complement of windows and the booster jet engine. The majority of early deliveries were to the Peoples Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF), mostly as transports, with a few in 52-seat airliner configuration for the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). After the initial licenced production run the Y-7 was developed separately from the An-24 with a succession of upgrades culminating in the MA60 (Modern Ark) series.
A tactical transport derivative was copied, un-licenced, from the Antonov An-26 and emerged as the Y-7H, incorporating the cargo ramp door and military equipment of the An-26.
Read more about this topic: Xian Y-7
Famous quotes containing the word development:
“The work of adult life is not easy. As in childhood, each step presents not only new tasks of development but requires a letting go of the techniques that worked before. With each passage some magic must be given up, some cherished illusion of safety and comfortably familiar sense of self must be cast off, to allow for the greater expansion of our distinctiveness.”
—Gail Sheehy (20th century)
“The man, or the boy, in his development is psychologically deterred from incorporating serving characteristics by an easily observable fact: there are already people around who are clearly meant to serve and they are girls and women. To perform the activities these people are doing is to risk being, and being thought of, and thinking of oneself, as a woman. This has been made a terrifying prospect and has been made to constitute a major threat to masculine identity.”
—Jean Baker Miller (20th century)
“The proper aim of education is to promote significant learning. Significant learning entails development. Development means successively asking broader and deeper questions of the relationship between oneself and the world. This is as true for first graders as graduate students, for fledging artists as graying accountants.”
—Laurent A. Daloz (20th century)