Shenyang WS-10

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The WS-10 or WS10 (Woshan 10), codename Taihang, is a turbofan engine, developed in the 1980s by the Shenyang Aeroengine Research Institute, a design institute of the China Aviation Industry Corporation. it based on the USA CFM-56 engine, and can be considered a Chinese version of F110. After almost 20 years, it was finally installed by the People's Liberation Army Air Force in their Shenyang J-11 fighter aircraft, and possibly, Chengdu J-10.

However, after the government's official acknowledgment of the existence of the J-10, an interview with J-10 pilots such as test pilot Mr. Li Cunbao (李存宝) revealed that the domestic engine is highly unlikely to be equipped in J-10s in the near future. In this interview publicized in January 2007, the pilots claimed that though the domestic WS-10 Chinese engine could match the performance of the Russian one in every parameter and even surpass in some, there was a very serious drawback: the domestic Chinese engine, WS-10 and WS-10A, took much longer to reach the same level of performance as its Russian counterpart. (According to Mr. Li Cunbao's experience, as well as other pilots who flew the J-10 with the WS-10, it took at least 50% longer, and in many other aspects, almost 100% longer.) Although this difference is only slightly more than a minute at most, it was more-than-enough to make a difference between allowing the pilots to safely recover the aircraft by restarting the engine than abandoning the aircraft in a forced ejection.

Another problem of the WS-10 engine is its lack of FADEC, which is needed for having a same or better aircraft performance when compared with an aircraft with a Russian engine. However, the current WS-10 version available with complete FADEC is not reliable enough to be accepted into service for single engined aircraft like J-10, and currently all of the matured WS-10s lack FADEC. As a result, the WS-10 is currently certified for twin engined aircraft such as Shenyang J-11 only.

The new fully FADEC WS-10A, reported to be an impressive 13,500kg thrust and 7.5 T/W ratio turbofan, could be in service in about 5 years. At the Zhuhai 2002 show a photo was released of a J-11 alleged to have been modified to test one WS-10A.^[1]