The Chinese Aviation Industry

 Not too long ago I posted something about China's C919 jetliner that is now entering service. The C919 is a 190 seat two aisle passenger aircraft developed by China's COMAC. It is going to give serious competition for the Airbuses and Boeings. 

COMAC had previously launched the 90 seater regional aircraft the ARJ21 which has now entered service and has an order book of over 600 planes. 

COMAC is now about to start manufacturing the new C929 - a wide body 190 passenger jet plane. Here is some news from COMAC :

ARJ21 regional airliner already in service

COMAC 90-seat ARJ21 regional airliner huge success
ARJ21 already highly successful, orders exceeding 600 

C919 190 seat airliner entering service 2021

• 190-seat trunk airliner C919 flight certification
• orders for C919 reached 815

C929 290 seat double aisle 

Delivery of CR929 long-haul jetliner on schedule
1,000 expected to be delivered between 2023 and 2045
CR929 63.3m long, 17.9m high, wingspan 61.2m
C929 range is 12,000 kilometers
meets Asia-Pacific, Europe flight requirements 
Traditionally panels replaced by large LCD screens (in cockpit) 
reduce maintenance costs, make flying safer
advanced composite materials exceeds 50%, titanium alloy 15% 
dual-aisle wide-body advancing to completion

• civil aviation accounts for 90% of aviation industry
• profits concentrated in large passenger aircraft
• Future market prospects looking positive
• 2023-2045 global demand for wide-body passenger aircraft will exceed 10,000
• 1840 from Chinese and Russian market
• COMAC begun development of upgraded models 
• double-deck, two aisle, three aisle and supersonic airliners

My comments :

The rest of the world is not buying into China's brand new jetliners entering into service. Understandably China is a new player in large commercial aircraft and the world is not used to these new Chinese aircraft.

Plus the Western countries also have their prejudices against China.

But here are the facts. That regional airliner the 90 seat ARJ21 is already flying around China and has an order book of over 600 aircraft.

The even newer 190 seat C919 is entering service this year, all their certifications are almost complete. They have secured over 815 orders. 

Now COMAC is going into the manufacturing phase of the latest 290 seat C929. 

As you can see the designation C919 means 190 seats, C929 means 290 seats and so on. The planes can actually carry a few more passengers than their number designations.

COMAC has also begun design work on the C939 (a 390 to 400 passenger plane). 

What will happen is that these planes will all start flying around China and Russia (which is co-developing the engines for the C929) and start making money for the mostly Chinese airlines that are buying them. Other regional airlines in Russia, Central Asia (and possibly even Vietnam) may be buying these planes.

Once these Chinese planes begin flying international routes into Europe and America there will be that Great Leap Forward for COMAC. The rest of the world will start buying them. 

Then there will be three major airplane manufacturers in the world Boeing (now badly hit by those 737 crashes), Airbus and COMAC. 

The Chinese have a huge strategic and competitive advantage - they have a 1.5 billion size home market. That alone is enough to sustain their airline production.

The other fact about the Chinese is that the moment they have completed one design they immediately begin work on upgrading their designs. 

The Chinese have surprised the West and Japan with their continuous upgrades of their Made In China motor cars, high speed trains, aircraft carriers and Chinese Stealth fighter planes. 

The Chinese are the first country in the world to design and  manufacture a High Speed freight train. For about 100 years now the average speed of freight trains all over the world (including stops) is about 23 miles per hour. I think the Chinese will be exceeding 100 mph.

The Chinese have also designed and manufactured a High Speed train that can self adjust the gauge (the width) of its wheels while on the tracks. A 600 foot long train can self adjust its wheel gauge in less than 60 seconds. This will allow a Chinese High Speed train to cross international boundaries and adjust their wheel gauge to suit the width of the railway tracks in other countries. Of course that will also affect the speed of the train, meter gauge like in Malaysia cannot support high speed trains but the Chinese trains can continue their journey uninterrupted.  

In aviation the company to watch will be COMAC.  

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.