COOL PHOTOS: Satellite images of Xian Y-20

Satellite imagery firm GeoEye has produced an image of what appears to be the Xian Y-20 strategic transport at China's Yanlian air base.

The image shows the aircraft situated on the base's runway 06 L, surrounded by what appear to be support vehicles and personnel.  The resolution is sufficient to discern the aircraft's yellow prototype colour scheme, its twin-tail, and four engines.

GeoEye says the image was taken using the company's GeoEye-1 satellite. 

Last week, Beijing actually confirmed that it is working on the Y-20, a big surprise given that they are normally tight lipped about this sort of thing. 

I must admit that these images really gave me a boost on what it the first working Monday of the year. With luck, GeoEye will one day send some photos of J-20 happenings at Chengdu and of the Liaoning at sea with several aircraft aboard.