Chinese Planespotting

Even though aviation seems more and more depressing by the day, I thought I would share some Chinese planespotting with you.

Chinese Y-5

When I first saw this airplane parked at Linyi’s airport, I was pretty surprised. Being an airplane ignoramus, I believed that biplanes, (airplanes with two sets of wings), had gone out with World War I. While it is true the design is best known for that time period, there are modern biplanes out there. Like the Chinese Y-5.

The Chinese Y-5 started out life as the Russian Antonov An-2, which is the largest single-engine biplane ever built. An-2 aircraft were used primarily for transport and agricultural flying. In the 1950s or 1970s (I’ve got conflicting info), the Chinese began building An-2s using Soviet blueprints (with help from Soviet engineers) and renamed it the Y-5. Y-5s are still manufactured today by the Shijiazhuang Aircraft Manufacturing Company in our former city of Shijiazhuang. Funny how we never saw one there.

The Y-5 landing in Linyi

The Y-5 parked in Linyi appears to be doing some sort of aerial survey work, as there is sonar equipment perched on each wingtip. (I’m guessing they’re looking for mineral deposits?) Sometimes I fear I’m giving away Chinese state secrets when I blog about aircraft here, but at the moment it is the most exciting thing I could come up with!

This is not the first Y-5 here. Back in early 2007 we spotted a green version, through the fog:

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Tagged as: aircraft, airplanes, Aviation, China, Y-5