Photo: Y-9 could be undergoing flight testing

The world faces a glut of medium-sized military transport. Aside from Lockheed Martin's popular C-130J, there is Embraer's KC390, India and Russia's multi-role transport aircraft, Japan's Kawasaki C-2, and China's developmental Shaanxi Y-9.

Last week a picture emerged on a Chinese military website (cnair.top81.cn) of what is apparently a prototype of the Y-9. Following this, an industry source told Flightglobbal that it has yet to conduct its first flight, but earlier this week a news story appeared on the Internet that it was undergoing flight testing. 

What's going on? Hard to say, but China needs to replace its old Y-8s, so we'll be hearing more about the Y-9 - perhaps even an appearance at Zhuhai in 2012.