Mysterious helicopter emerges in China: a new, stolen model or a cloned Bin Laden raid’s stealth chopper?

David Cenciotti
2 Min Read

An interesting image has emerged from the prolific Chinese Internet.

It depicts a mysterious helicopter being moved on a truck in China. Even if the aircraft is hidden below a protective covering, its shape can be guessed.

The chopper seems to have something in common with the U.S. UH-60 Black Hawk, hence it may be a Z-20, a Chinese model believed to be based on the S-70C, a medium transport/utility helicopter manufactured by Sikorsky already in service with the People’s Liberation Army.

However, there is another intriguing and (less likely) possibility: China has reverse-engineered the Stealth Black Hawk helicopter used by the Navy SEALs in the Osama Bin Laden raid.

Obviously this is a far fetched theory, since only a few chunks survived the crash landing at Abbottabad. Still, on Aug. 14, 2011, several media outlets all around the world, published the news that China was given access by Pakistani intelligence to the remains of the Stealth Black Hawk used during Operation Neptune’s Spear.

More from The Aviationist

The Incredible Armada of Aircraft Behind 1969’s Battle of Britain Film

On Sept. 15, 1969, cinema audiences were treated to a dramatic portrayal…

Kai Greet Kai Greet

US Approves Possible Sale of Nine KC-46A Pegasus Tankers for Japan

The latest deal would take the number of KC-46As in Japan’s inventory…

Parth Satam Parth Satam

U.S. State Department Approves $7.2B Sale Of F-35 Jets To Romania

The Foreign Military Sale’s approval comes after Romania announced the plan to…

Stefano D'Urso Stefano D'Urso

DARPA Awards BAE Systems $4 Million for Autonomous Beyond Visual Range Air Combat Program

Autonomy solutions for BVR combat will initially be developed and demonstrated on…

Parth Satam Parth Satam

What if they copied the general design of the tail rotor and, just like this author did with Ugo Crisponi, designed a chopper whose shape is similar to the one of the U.S. black MH-X or the Israeli Stealth Yanshuf?

Image credit: via Chinese Military Aviation

 

Enhanced by Zemanta
Share This Article
8 Comments