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AIRCRAFT PROGRAMMES I COMAC C919
CHINESE
The whole is not necessarily greater than the sum of the parts: COMAC has yet to demonstrate its ability as a prime
WHISPERS? T
Dr Neil Calder peers under the cloak of mystery surrounding the COMAC C919 programme to reveal a set of issues that may well have a bearing on the relationships of many Western companies in the programme’s supply chain.
he question of what COMAC is up to with the C919 programme is not an easy one to answer, but should
European aerospace suppliers be worried, excited or intrigued? The company is seeking the maturity to be a prime contractor, with an indigenous capability to generate complete civil aerospace products, but there are no signs yet of this being anywhere near coming to fruition. The evolution of the C919 programme
has been an interesting one to track and has brought with it a large number of newly established relationships between western aerospace companies and their counterparts within the developing Chinese civil aerospace sector. Until quite recently not much has
been directly disclosed about the aircraft itself, and what little that can be gleaned about the decisions on material choices for the various major parts of the aerostructure, for example, seems to have been influenced more by current global trends rather than by COMAC’s own engineering development efforts. First flight for the C919 is scheduled
for 2014, with entry into service in 2016. This is a very similar timeframe to UAC’s MS-21 and Airbus’ re-engined A320neo, and a year earlier than the B737 MAX, all of which will compete with it in global markets for 150-200 seat narrow body airliners and all of which are citing around 15% increases in fuel efficiency compared with current aircraft in this class. COMAC’s assertions that the aircraft
will deliver the fuel efficiencies necessary to be economically viable in the coming years before Airbus and Boeing realise their intentions with their new single aisle offerings are not founded on performance demonstrated through a chain of development programmes. The individual aircraft system parts
are there now and represent the current state-of-the-art from global leaders in the various topic areas, but how it comes together will be very interesting to watch. This will be the first large commercial aircraft to have been created indigenously since the Yun-10 in the early 1970s – of which only two examples were ever built. The first tier suppliers have been
gradually announced over the last 24 months with intelligence website Airframer providing a comprehensive listing of the main supply chain partners. In many ways this reads like a list of the organisations who have been preparing to offer new generations of technology into the radically updated and long heralded narrow-body products from Airbus and Boeing, but whose timescales have been lengthening.
Supply and demand COMAC has been pursuing a strategy of using foreign-made engines and electronics, at least initially for the launch variant of the aircraft, through a process of buying technology and selling market access in what they term the ‘Airframer Supplier’ model. The emerging partnerships represent the equipment list for the aircraft systems, such as Liebherr providing landing gear technology and Nexcelle, a joint venture between Aircelle and GE, providing the integrated nacelle and thrust reversers. Most significant is with CFM and its LEAP- X1C engine, which will be designed
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