To investigate the effects of receiver holes on the flow characteristics of pre-swirl system, based on a 3D model, a steady state numerical simulation of the pre-swirl system with the receiver holes angles between 0°and 60°was carried out. The results show that when the circumferential velocity of airflow is higher than that of the receiver holes, the vortexes near the receiver holes disappear gradually, and the effective flow areas increase with the angle of the receiver holes increasing. When the circumferential velocity of airflow is lower than that of the receiver holes, the vortexes gradually become larger, and the guiding effect of the receiver holes on the airflow is strengthened with the receiver holes angle increasing. As the receiver holes angles increase, static temperature and static pressure of airflow near the receiver holes decrease, the dimensionless mass flow rate and the temperature drop coefficient of pre-swirl system increase, and the total pressure loss coefficient slightly rises. The temperature drop coefficient increases by 22.7%, and the total pressure loss coefficient increases by 1.31% as the receiver holes angles increase from 0°to 60°. © 2018, Editorial Department of Journal of Propulsion Technology. All right reserved.