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what is it?
The Xi'an H-6 (Chinese: 轰-6; pinyin: Hōng-6) is a Chinese twin-engine jet heavy bomber manufactured by the Xi'an Aircraft Industrial Corporation. It is a license-built version of the Soviet Tupolev Tu-16 and remains the primary bomber aircraft of the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). The H-6N nuclear variant is a redesigned modernized strategic bomber carrying the JL-1 air-launched ballistic missile.
How to recognise it: 2 jet engines · 33 m wingspan
base stats
Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).
fun facts
- First flew 71 years ago, in 1955.
- Top speed is 8.1× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- Wingspan of 33 m: about 7 cars parked nose to tail.
- Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 16 African elephants (~6 t each).
- Range of 6,000 km: Amsterdam to New York (≈5,850 km) without stopping.
- Can fly 1.4× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).
jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.
spec sheet
- first flight
- 1955
- introduced
- 1969
- retired
- 1991
- status
- in production
- number built
- 150
- role
- strategic bomber
- origin
- 🇨🇳 China
- makers
- Xi'an Aircraft Industrial Corporation
- engines
- 2× Soloviev D-30KP-2
- crew
- 4
- length
- 34.8 m
- wingspan
- 33 m
- height
- 10.4 m
- max take-off weight
- 95 t
- top speed
- 1,050 km/h
- cruise speed
- 768 km/h
- range
- 6,000 km
- ceiling
- 12,800 m
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
family
Sources: Wikidata Q39600, Wikipedia: Xi'an H-6 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.