The COMAC C919 ready to compete with Airbus and Boeing

In díthe past, China delivered its certificationón laterés from toñtesting one of its new commercial aircraft, the COMAC C919. COMAC press photo

Post written by: Capturesán Rodolfo Estrella
FAA Commercial Pilot
Twitter: @rodo_estrella

Although in the West little has been heard about this new aircraftón, This is a great leap for the aero industryáutica china whose interestés is to openly compete with the giants Airbus and Boeing in the niche where there is greater competition: against him Boeing 737 MAX and the Airbus A320neo.

China he launchedó to development and productionón of this new avión recently más de 15 años, to supply internal demand and try not to depend on Western aircraft, así as well as giving your own industry a greater local and international presence.

COMAC C919 to compete with the West

The COMAC C919 is an aircraftón single-aisle twin-engine capable of tentatively transporting up to 168 passengers with an estimated range of 5.500 kilómeters.

Although it is a designñthe conventional, The C919 has many compa componentsñíWestern ace, such as aviónica, hydro systemsáulicos, undercarriage, and especially engines.

For C919, COMAC decidedó by 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 más powerful of this family of engines.

For its constructionón in general, if I decidedó by 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 pricesón.

The client for the launch of the C919 is China Eastern Airlines to followán other Aerol customersíChinese lines and leasing companies.

For now, aún when the C919 project has had great technological supportólogic of the west, has captured little interestés by operators on this side of the world, However, It was recently learned that the Ministry of Aviationón in Nigeria has interés on the C919 for the launch of a new attempt aerolíflag line with an estimated potential of 30 requests.

Its estimated unit cost is around $70 millions, although its exact performanceún is unknown, It is expected to be very close to those offered by its competition in the segment..

The aircraft industryáChinese utica and its reputationón

China has an aircraft industryáutica as old as aviationón commercial same, It has traditionally been influenced by aeroáutica soviéethic and later Russian and additionally in the blatant copy of designñWesterners as in the case of the Shanghai Y10 which was a fairly crude copy of the Boeing 707 although this one did not enteró in productionón.

The COMAC C919 has not been immune to the policeémica from traditional Chinese copy, since the program has been involved in technological espionageógic to Western companies with the afán to appropriate other people's intellectual property that can be exploited in this and subsequent projects.

China currently has a series of production aircraftón limited that serve aviationón internal although with ésuccess, They have not had any sales abroad like the COMAC ARJ-21 Xiangfeng (Féflying nix) 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’ian MA-60, a turboprop derived from the ancient Antonov AN-24 soviéticos, but whose ésuccess has been empañloved for 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 Unión European. Let us remember the case of AerolíRoyal Tonga airline of the Tonga Islands that had to suspend operations of the type on flights to New Zealand because the New Zealand authority considers the X dangerous and unsafe’ian.

A Colombia They came as a donationón by the Chinese government two Harbin Y-12 aircraft operating from 2013 until 2020 in areas of difíeasy access. I lostéone in an incident with severe turbulence and the other retired without further informationón.

Regrettably, the aero industryáutica china has not had a good reputationón, what has been dragging not only in its aeron industryáutica if not in its entire technology industryógica caracterizábeing blamed for having a low quality image, así as being involved in questionable government and business actions that lead to public distrust.úblico.

Even though in its automotive industry it has achieved úlast toñyou stand out especially for prices, The COMAC C919 has a similar value to its competitors with a strong críWestern ethics when considering it technologicalólogically inferior and tentatively a máwith alto costo de operationón.

An unusual opportunity

China has a medium-term opportunity in Russia, this because of, thanks to western sanctions on raíz of the unjustified invasionón and conflict with Ukraine, aircraft manufacturers, pieces, spare parts and derivatives are not going to supply the airlinesíRussian lines that operate these equipment, what in the short term will causeá that the aerosolíRussian lines stop operating because they cannot maintain their fleets due to lack of parts and because they cannot buy moreás 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 the needs of its aviationón, However, face an immense challenge given that these aircraft use, like the C919, many Western components and parts that mustán supply by developing technologyías own to what Russia is notá prepared.

If China plays its cards right, by not having the same economic sanctionsómicas that you have Russia couldíto take advantage of that immense market that at the moment can beíto open in Russia if economic conditionsópost war mikes allow it.

¿To beá what somethingún día China logra superar su pobre reputación to bring us aircraft that really iséon par with its competitors? time will tellá.