The head of Russia's military and aviation industries said Russia's
involvement in the CR929 program is decreasing. The comments were made at
the plenary session of the Engineers of the Future forum on June 29th.
In the speech at the forum, Russian Vice-Premier Yuri Borisov said,
"We are working with China on this project which, in principle, is not going in the
direction that suits us. China, as it becomes an industrial giant, is less and less interested in
our services…Our participation is decreasing and decreasing. I don't want to predict the future
of this project, if we are going to leave it or not, but for now this is really the way,"
The CR929-600 is a planned long-range 280-seat passenger widebody twinjet airliner
being developed by the Shanghai-based CRAIC, a joint-venture formed by China's
civil planemaker COMAC and Russia's United Aircraft Corporation (UAC).
Interestingly, just two months ago, in an interview with Tass on May 5th,
China's Ambassador to Russia, Zhang Hanhui, said both parties have agreed
on a range of key issues of the CR929 project. At the time, Zhang said:
"Creation of the CR929 widebody long-range airplane is one of the critical joint projects
of our countries. The parties for the time have already reached a consensus on key issues like
investments, design, and labor division on completion of research and development.
Joint studies and developments are progressing smoothly and sustainably."
Another high-ranking Russian official, Denis Manturov,
Russian Minister of Trade and Industry, also said only two weeks ago that the
project was being redesigned to not rely on Western components, saying:
"[The] CR929 is underway. But taking into account the new inputs, in line with the restrictions
that exist today in terms of cooperation, which was formed by Chinese partners with
the involvement of Western manufacturers, this now it's impossible, so you'll have to
spend time restructuring approaches using only Russian and Chinese manufacturers."
Currently, no information could indicate why Russia changed its standpoint in a short time.
Russia and China agreed, in general, to jointly develop a widebody aircraft in 2012. And COMAC and
U.A.C. signed an M.O.U. in 2016, witnessed by both countries' leaders, Xi and Putin.
Initially, Russia wanted the CR929 to be developed based on the Ilyushin IL-96,
a Russian quadjet long-haul widebody airliner designed in the Soviet Union era. China
strongly disagreed with the idea, instead, proposing a twin-engine, widebody airliner,
much like the Airbus A330 or Boeing 787, aiming to challenge the Airbus and Boeing duopoly.
Also, since 2014, Russia has wanted the CR929 strictly only rely on Russian and
Chinese suppliers, including the engines and other essential aircraft systems.
However, China, learning from its early Y-10 program, insists on participating and cooperating
with the international aviation industry to ensure the project's commercial success.
At the beginning, Chinese and Russian cooperation was essential. China needed Russia's experience in
overall design, fuselage structure, and aerodynamic design. Meanwhile, Russia, needed
China's capital investment, which is essential to a widebody aircraft development program.
However, as the Chinese ARJ21 and C919 programs progress, and Russia becomes increasingly
isolated in the international community, China doesn’t need its partner in the way it once did.
What do you think of this situation? Will China ditch Russia
and develop a widebody on its own? Let us know by leaving a comment.