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developments in China.
Today we are talking about China’s first C919 jet to be delivered completes successful
maiden test flight.
The first C919 large passenger aircraft to be delivered completed a successful maiden
test flight in early May, according to the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC).
China's indigenously-developed jet, coded B-001J, took off at 6:52 a.m. from Shanghai
Pudong International Airport and landed at the same site at 9:54 a.m on May 8.
During the flight that lasted three hours and two minutes, pilots and engineers coordinated
to complete all designed operations, and the plane was in good condition, said COMAC.
In March last year, China Eastern Airlines and COMAC signed a purchase contract for five
C919 planes, which will be based mainly in Shanghai after delivery.
Since 2019, six C919 jets have conducted a series of ground and flight tests in places
such as Shanghai, Yanliang, Dongying and Nanchang.
In November 2020, the C919 received its type inspection authorization.
The C919, China's first self-developed trunk jetliner, has 158-174 seats and a range of
4,075-5,555 km.
The plane conducted its successful maiden flight in 2017.
The C919 is China's first single-aisle large passenger aircraft developed in accordance
with international advanced airworthiness standards.
It also has independent intellectual property rights and can compete with Boeing and Airbus
in terms of performance.
The C919 reportedly completed its maiden flight in 2017, and with more than 200 companies
involved, mass production delivery is fast.
According to the latest news, COMAC is actively applying for an airworthiness certificate.
The C919 is China's first trunk-line civil aircraft developed in accordance with the
latest international airworthiness standards, also known as "domestic large aircraft", with
a seat class of 158 to 168, and is comparable to the Boeing B737 and Airbus A320.
The C919 completed its maiden flight in May 2017, and in December 2020, the aircraft entered
the airworthiness certification process of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
Regarding the progress of the C919 airworthiness certificate collection, in December 2021,
the Civil Aviation Administration of China disclosed the specific situation of the C919
airworthiness certification subjects, and has completed 1694 test points and 34 certification
test flight subjects, as well as a lot of test flight work such as natural icing.
needs to be done.
In terms of the specific delivery time, during the two sessions in Shanghai in 2022, Wu Yongliang,
deputy general manager and chief accountant of COMAC, said that the domestic C919 project
is still in the stage of airworthiness certification and is expected to be delivered in 2022.
The specific delivery will be The conditions will not be met until the proof is completed.
China Eastern Airlines or China-made large aircraft is the world's first launch user.
In March 2021, China Eastern Airlines and COMAC signed a purchase contract for the C919
large passenger aircraft, and the first batch of five aircraft was introduced.
According to the introduction of the C919 team, as of the beginning of this year, the
company has won a total of 850 domestic and foreign aircraft orders.
The main domestic orderers are Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines,
Hainan Airlines and other airlines, as well as leasing companies such as China National
Bank Leasing, ICBC Leasing, and Bank of Communications Leasing.
According to COMAC's annual report on the civil aircraft market forecast, by the end
of 2036, China will have a demand for 8,575 new aircraft, and the market space for civil
passenger aircraft will be nearly 8 trillion.
The domestic passenger aircraft market has a huge space, and the C919 large aircraft
has entered the stage of industrial production, and the relevant supply chain will usher in
rapid development.
According to the research report of Galaxy Securities, according to the market forecast
of COMAC and Boeing, in the next 20 years, China's demand for narrow-body passenger aircraft
such as C919 will average about 300 aircraft per year.
It is assumed that C919 can reach three points in China in the future One market share, the
average annual delivery of C919 aircraft is expected to reach 100.
At present, the price of the delivered ARJ21-700 aircraft is 86% of the price of the similar
foreign model Bombardier CRJ-900.
Therefore, according to the price ratio of ARJ21-700, it is predicted that the price
of C919 is about 80 million US dollars.
Therefore, it believes that the annual sales of the C919 are expected to reach 8 billion
US dollars in the future.
According to static estimates, it will bring about a 68% increase in China's aviation industry
in the future.
It was also reported that the development of the CR929 is also progressing following
the maiden flight of the CR919, a large domestic aircraft.
The model is similar to Boeing 787 and Airbus A350, and meets the needs of the global international
and regional air passenger market.
It is a "big plane" in the true sense of China.
The wide-body aircraft was jointly built by China and Russia and has a promising future
market.
It is estimated that demand for CR929 widebody aircraft in China and Russia alone has reached
2,000 orders.
The C919 is China's first large civil aviation aircraft with independent intellectual property
rights.
However, it has been questioned as "non-domestic, only assembly machine" because it contains
imported parts, and only the shell is made in China.
Can the C919 be called Domestic at all?
Take a look at where its component suppliers come from.
As can be seen from the list of suppliers via the Internet, it seems that only the outer
shell such as the fuselage, wings and doors are from Chinese companies, while important
systems and components such as engines, avionics and flight controllers are all from European
and American countries.
Life experience has taught us that the shell is always less important.
Cars, for example, can run without a shell; For example, a computer mainframe can still
run without its shell.
Therefore, some people believe that The C919 cannot be considered a truly domestic aircraft
because it is just a "shell with no technical content" and has not mastered the key technology
of aircraft manufacturing.
But are aircraft shells really as low-tech as car shells?
Different from our daily experience, aircraft as a vehicle based on aerodynamic principles,
the shell and structure design is very complex, which greatly affects flight safety, efficiency
and performance, and is also one of the core technologies of aircraft.
Compared with Boeing's 737MAX and Airbus's A320neo, the C919 is based on excellent structural
design, lighter weight, lower fuel consumption, longer life span and 50 percent lower carbon
emissions.
It is also expected to have a wider fuselage and cabin noise of less than 60 decibels,
providing a more spacious and quiet experience for passengers and meeting the needs of large
cargo volumes.
In addition to the airframe being made in China, the latest supplier information released
by COMAC shows that more Chinese companies and joint ventures are actually involved in
manufacturing the core systems of the C919.
The main systems, such as avionics and landing gear, seem to be supplied by foreign companies,
but many of the "sub-systems" that make up these main systems are domestic.
For example, the display system for the C919 is provided by the China Aviation Radio-Electronics
Institute, an established scientific research institute in Shanghai.
The cabin core control system and information system are also domestically developed.
As of April 2021, 16 chinese-foreign joint ventures have been involved in the C919, providing
it with important systems such as avionics, flight control and communication navigation,
according to China Business News.
Through joint ventures with European and American suppliers and domestic production lines, China
has gradually mastered key technologies and industrial chains, and the proportion of domestic
systems and components is increasing.
The "assembly" of large aircraft is a complex and systematic integration project, and China's
independent intellectual property rights to large aircraft are reflected in the overall
control of systems.
The vice president of Boeing group once said: If people could buy parts and put them together
and fly them, there wouldn't be only two big airplane manufacturers in the world.
The C919's manufacturer, COMAC, is the third in the world after Boeing and Airbus.
Wu Guanghui, chief designer of the C919, said: "The C919 has millions of interfaces, which
are related to multiple systems such as hydraulics and avionics.
How it works depends on the design of the aircraft.
In other words, In the development and manufacturing process of the C919, China plays the role
of "director", is the core control of the entire engineering project.
It is believed that in the future, with the formal delivery and commissioning of C919,
China's civil aviation trunk passenger aircraft manufacturing industry will usher in strong
development.
That's all for today.