By JOHN RICHARD SCHROCK
Sunday, May 28, saw the first commercial flight of China’s home-built C919 airliner. China Eastern Airlines flight MU9191 flew from Shanghai to Beijing on Sunday (10:45am–1:10pm) and returned back to Shanghai later that afternoon. The C919 is China’s first commercial large jetliner, produced by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC).
While on a short lecture visit at a Chinese university in 2017, I watched the noon news broadcast and saw footage of the C919 as it made its maiden test flight. According to Reuters, the C919 was certified for commercial flight by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) last September.
It has been 14 years since COMAC began development on it’s C919 single-aisle passenger jet. The C919 is designed to rival the Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A320. Flying up to 3,000 miles, the C919 can carry from 156 to 168 passengers. The C919 provides both economy and business seating. Its cost is about $90 million, slightly less than the Boeing 737 MAX.
COMAC has been producing the ARJ21 regional jetliners that are already in service. These are smaller planes that are more in competition with Bombardier (Canada) and Embraer (Brazil). The ARJ 21 regional jet accommodates 95 passengers and can fly up to 2300 miles.
Recently and American television news network ran a brief piece interviewing a commercial figure claiming that China was stealing all the technology to produce their new aircraft. No details were provided because this is simply a false statement.
Just as U.S. Lockheed buys jet engines from Rolls Royce in Canada, Boeing and Airbus also rely on subcontractors worldwide for specialty equipment.
COMAC relies on Western countries to supply certain components for both engines and avionics. G.E. Aeronautics supplies jet engines worldwide. The international company Safran provides electro-optic and navigation systems. Honeywell International also produces thousands of products used in aircraft and airports worldwide.
More than two decades ago, China moved to recognizing the value of holding intellectual property rights and in 2019 surpassed the U.S. in number of science patents.
China’s high-speed train technology has been first in the world for several decades, and it is recognized that the U.S. will likely never be able to build and operate even one high-speed route.
Other Far East and European countries likewise lead the U.S. in some technologies. Most Americans recognize that Japan is well ahead of the U.S. in electric car technology.
U.S. officials also recently announced that China’s hypersonic glide vehicle technology is more advanced than systems in the U.S.
One among many factors for the rise of COMAC is China’s desire to become less reliant on other countries for aerospace technology. At the end of 2022, COMAC had received orders for 1,035 C919 airliners. However, Boeing and to a lesser extent Airbus will remain a major portion of China’s commercial aircraft for some time to come. Hainan Airlines, China’s fourth largest airline company, currently has a total 342 planes that included 260 Boeing and 64 Airbus airliners at the end of 2022. The HNA Group recently signed to purchase 60 COMAC C919 passenger jets and 40 ARJ21 regional jetliners.
Today’s beginning of the C919 as a functioning large airline carrier in China will allow COMAC to build its record in operational safety and maintenance.
According to Reuters, China is aiming for COMAC to provide 10 percent of China’s domestic flights by 2035. COMAC still is in an early stage of building production capacity and plans to have a capacity to manufacture 150 C919 aircraft each year by 2028. Therefore, it will take many decades before COMAC can build up production capacity to become a major international competitor with Airbus and Boeing.