Hi aviation friends! I present you... the Xian Y-20! This Chinese made plane, obviously from the Chinese Air Force, visited Innsbruck twice in two weeks. It was serial 20240 which had the honors. The plane belongs to the 13th Transport Division / 37th Air Regiment based at Kaifeng Air Base.
Even though the Y-20 is a quite a young design (2012) it has the classic and amazing sounding Soloviev D-30 engines which we know better from the use on the Ilyushin IL-62 and IL76, and the Tupolev TU-154.
43 Chinese soldiers participated in the Edelweiss-Raid international mountain infantry competition organised by the Austrian Army. The Y-20 flew them to Austria and came back yesterday to fly them home. When I found out this plane was due to visit Innsbruck, I decided to take a gamble and book a flight to the Austrian Alps to try and catch it. Okay, I’ll admit things did not go according to plan as after I had booked, the flight schedule for the Y-20 was was changed to a day later. I had to cancel my flight home, book a hotel and eventually ended up using the railway to get back to The Netherlands instead. But boy was it all worth it! The airport of Innsbruck is unique with all those mountains with snowy tops surrounding the airport! And best of all, the sun was shining when the Y-20 came in. I had a full day to prepare for its arrival and in the end managed to film the landing through a fence, which is not something I like to do, and not something I’m particularly good at. But I managed to film it well and I am very happy with the footage. The take off was nothing short of spectacular! It was incredible to catch this insanely rare bird. I think it’s a brilliant looking plane. Maybe it’s an unpopular opinion but I think it looks better than an IL-76.
A massive thank you goes out to all the people who provided information to help me catch this awesome plane. It was great to see a lot of fellow planespotters turned up to catch a glimpse of the Y-20.
I really enjoyed my time in Innsbruck and I filmed more than just the Y-20. So expect to see more from INN in due time. I hope you enjoy the video.
This video is dedicated to my buddy Jesse. Follow him on Instagram!
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** This video is property of Rudi van Goch and may not be used in any way without permission! **
Outro song by: The Birthday Massacre - The NeverEnding Story
#planespotting #innsbruck #y20