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In past days, China delivered its certification after years of testing one of its new commercial aircraft, the COMAC C919. COMAC press photo
Post written by: Captain Rudolph Star
FAA Commercial Pilot
Twitter: @rodo_estrella
Although in the West little has been heard about this new plane, This is a great leap for the Chinese aeronautical industry whose interest is to compete openly with the giants Airbus and Boeing in the niche where there is greater competition: against him Boeing 737 MAX and the Airbus A320neo.
China launched the development and production of this new aircraft just over 15 years, to supply internal demand and try not to depend on Western aircraft, as well as giving its own industry a greater local and international presence.
COMAC C919 to compete with the West
The COMAC C919 is a twin-engine, single-aisle aircraft capable of tentatively carrying up to 168 passengers with an estimated range of 5.500 kilometres.
Although it is a conventional design, The C919 has many components from Western companies, such as avionics, hydraulic systems, undercarriage, and especially engines.
For C919, COMAC decided on CFM International LEAP -1C engines, the same family of engines that equip its competitors Boeing 737-MAX (LEAP 1B) y Airbus A320 (LEAP 1A). However, The LEAP 1C of the C919 are the most powerful of this family of engines.
For general construction, decided on traditional and conventional materials, especially in the use of aluminum instead of new low-weight and high-strength compounds, this in order to lower production prices.
The client for the launch of the C919 is China Eastern Airlines which will be followed by other clients of Chinese airlines and leasing companies.
For now, even though the C919 project has had great technological support from the West, has attracted little interest from operators on this side of the world, However, It was recently learned that the Ministry of Aviation in Nigeria is interested in the C919 for the launch of a tentative new flag airline with an estimated potential of 30 requests.
Its estimated unit cost is around $70 millions, although its exact performance is still unknown, It is expected to be very close to those offered by its competition in the segment..
The Chinese aviation industry and its reputation
China has an aviation industry as old as commercial aviation itself, It has traditionally been influenced by Soviet and later Russian aeronautics and additionally by the blatant copying of Western designs as in the case of the Shanghai Y10, which was a fairly crude copy of the Boeing 707 although this did not go into production.
The COMAC C919 has not been immune to the controversy of the traditional Chinese copy, since the program has been involved in technological espionage of Western companies with the desire to appropriate other people's intellectual property that can be exploited in this and subsequent projects.
China currently has a series of limited production aircraft that serve domestic aviation, albeit successfully., They have not had any sales abroad like the COMAC ARJ-21 Xiangfeng (flying phoenix) whose appearance shows a very great influence (not to call it a copy) of the Boeing 717, formerly McDonnell Douglas DC-9.
One of the few models that has had the opportunity to reach western latitudes was the X'ian MA-60, a turboprop derived from the ancient Antonov Soviet AN-24, but whose success has been marred by its poor reliability, high operational cost and extensive security problems that have even led it to not be certified to operate in the USA or in the European Union. Let us remember the case of the Royal Tonga airline of the Tonga Islands, which had to suspend operations of this type on flights to New Zealand because the New Zealand authority considers the X'ian dangerous and unsafe.
A Colombia Two Harbin Y-12 aircraft operating from 2013 until 2020 in hard-to-reach areas. One was lost in an incident with severe turbulence and the other retired without further information..
Regrettably, The Chinese aviation industry has not had a good reputation, what has been dragging not only in its aeronautical industry but in its entire technological industry, characterized by having a low quality image., as well as being involved in questionable government and business actions that lead to public distrust..
Even though in its automotive industry it has managed to stand out in recent years, especially due to prices, The COMAC C919 has a similar value to its competitors with strong Western criticism considering it technologically inferior and tentatively having a higher operating cost..
An unusual opportunity
China has a medium-term opportunity in Russia, this because of, thanks to Western sanctions following the unjustified invasion and conflict with Ukraine, aircraft manufacturers, pieces, spare parts and derivatives will not provide Russian airlines that operate this equipment, which in the short term will cause Russian airlines to stop operating because they will not be able to maintain their fleets due to lack of parts and because they will not be able to buy more airplanes.. Russia Seeing itself in this problem, it has aggressively called on its industry to produce its new airplanes. Irkut MS21 and Sukhoi Superjet massively to cover its aviation needs, However, They face an immense challenge given that these aircraft, like the C919, use many Western components and parts that they will have to replace by developing their own technologies for which Russia is not prepared..
If China plays its cards right, by not having the same economic sanctions that it has Russia could take advantage of that immense market that could currently be opened in Russia if post-war economic conditions allow it.
Will it be that one day China manages to overcome its poor reputation to bring us aircraft that are really on par with their competitors? Time will tell.
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Like any product that can be competitive for the West, will have the normal opposition, but still, China is determined to continue with its project, with internal ignitions of more than 100 aircraft.
It is very important that China manages to compete with the colossi Boing and Airbus, which are the absolute masters of the manufacturing of medium and long-range commercial aircraft.
The theme of the 100 orders in China in one way or another is not real, since they are orders "almost by force" by local airlines to support their own Chinese industry. Let's see if there are orders from abroad., that would be interesting.
Good evening
This model faces big problems:
1- It only has certification from Chinese entities, It will be very difficult to obtain certification from the USA and Europe.
2- The turbines, the avionics are from the USA, It will be very difficult for them to have a reliable supply of these parts..
3- For now it can only fly over Chinese territory, It will be a long time before it can cross borders
4- It does not yet have mass production certification, only the toene for the built model
Daludos
JIMMY
Good points Jimmy.. I believe that this model will cross borders in Asia sooner or later, even more so than countries very close to the Chinese regime.