Harbin Z-19

The Harbin Z-19 is a Chinese reconnaissance/attack helicopter developed by HAMC for the People's Liberation Army Air Force and the Ground Force Air Force. It is an up-gunned variant of the Harbin Z-9 and hence a distant cousin of the Eurocopter Dauphin.

Description
The Z-19 is an updated modified version of the Harbin Z-9W (similar to the development of Bell AH-1 Cobra from UH-1). It is a twin-seat tandem helicopter with a similar mechanical layout to the Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin series as the Z-9 series are licence-built versions of the Dauphin.

The Z-19 features a fenestron tail, damping its sound and therefore allows it achieve some level of acoustic stealthiness. The exhausts also protect the helicopter from infrared threats.

The Z-19 also features armor platings, crash resistant seats, and a turret with FLIR, TV, and laser range finder. Z-19 is also equipped with advanced helmet mounted sight (HMS), which looks different than that of WZ-10.

General designer of the WZ-19 was Wu Ximing (吴希明) of the 602nd Research Institute, one of the Chinese top scientists involved in the 863 Program, after graduating from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1984. Wu had earlier participated in the designs of the armed version of transport helicopters Z-8A, Z-11 and WZ-9, and he is also the general designer of another Chinese attack helicopter CAIC WZ-10. At the 9th Zhuhai Airshow held in November 2012, Aviation Industry Corporation of China formally announced the official names of WZ-10 and WZ-19 at a televised news release conference, with both attack helicopters are named after the nicknames of fictional characters in the Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. WZ-10 is named as Fierce Thunderbolt (Pi Li Huo, 霹靂火), the nickname of Qin Ming, while WZ-19 is named as Black Whirlwind (Hei Xuan Feng, 黑旋風), the nickname of Li Kui.

Production
Harbin Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation is developing the Z-19, which is expected to function and support with a heavier attack helicopter the CAIC WZ-10 in the near future. Export variants will be designated WZ-19 (Wuzhuang Zhishengji - attack helicopter), but aircraft used in country will be designated Z-19 as WZ is used by the PLAAF for UAVs (WZ - Wuren Zhencha (Unmanned Reconnaissance)).