PLA’s four-engine turboprop described as outperforming US counterpart in engine power, payload capacity, structure and material
3-MIN READ3-MIN ListenLiu ZhenPublished: 6:00pm, 10 Apr 2026China’s new-generation medium-lift transport aircraft will surpass America’s best counterpart, the C-130J “Super Hercules”, in most performance metrics, according to a Chinese military magazine.
The Chinese “new medium-lift transporter”, or “Xin Zhong Yun” in Chinese, can easily outperform the C-130J, the “world’s best tactic transport aircraft in service”, in engine power, payload capacity, structure and material, avionics and flight control software, according to an analysis in the latest issue of Aerospace Knowledge magazine put out by Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, or Beihang University.
Developed in the 1990s, the C-130J is the newest and most advanced variant of the C-130 series that launched in the 1950s. It has only a small edge in operational range over the Y-30 and is mature enough to have developed many special mission variants.
