China to Build Large Passenger Jets

[Matt Molnar]

China to take on Boeing, Airbus

March 19, 2007 - 8:35AM

The Chinese cabinet has approved in principle a plan to develop the country's own large passenger jets, the government said on Sunday, in a move that could challenge the dominance of Boeing Co and Airbus.

The State Council, China's cabinet, has also given the go-ahead to set up a company to build the aircraft, the government said in a statement on its website.

"The State Council meeting believes that building large aircraft is an important, strategic policy of the Communist Party and State Council, and it has also been the wish of the entire nation for many years," the statement said.

"Our country has been developing the aviation industry for 50 years, and already has the technical and material base to develop large aircraft."

The statement said the decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao on February 26. It did not say why it had taken so long to announce.

The statement gave no other details, such as investment figures or where or when the aircraft might be made.

Industry sources told Reuters earlier this month that China's two state aircraft makers, AVIC I and AVIC II, as well as the Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defence, would be involved in developing the jets.

AVIC I and AVIC II, both of which make components for Airbus and Boeing, also have experience in civilian jet development and manufacturing.

AVIC I has secured more than 30 orders for its ARJ21 regional jet, scheduled for commercial operation next year, while AVIC II unit Hafei Aviation Industry makes the ERJ-145 regional craft in partnership with Brazil's Embraer.

With its air passenger traffic growing at double-digit rates in recent years, China will need about 2,650 new passenger aircraft over the next 20 years, worth $US289 billion ($366.7 billion), according to the latest projections from Airbus, a unit of European aerospace group EADS.

Reuters

[Matt Molnar]

Plenty of Hurdles for Chinese Wide-body Project

Mar 18, 2007

By Bradley Perrett

A Chinese project to build a wide-body commercial aircraft in the coming 15 years must deal with enormous technical, commercial and political challenges, despite the country's assiduous accumulation of western aerospace know-how.

The aircraft--called a "jumbo" when it was announced a year ago under the 2006-10, five-year economic plan--is now described as having more than 150 seats and weighing more than 100 metric tons (220,000 lb.) at takeoff, making it at least as big as a Boeing 757 and probably putting it in the class of the 767 and 787. China plans to fly the aircraft in 10-15 years and, most ambitiously, looks to use its own engines.

A parallel project for Chinese aero-engines is under way, with lawmaker Liu Daxiang saying domestic aerospace group Avic I aims to deliver turbofans with greater thrust than the two main western narrow-body engines, the CFM56 and V2500. But the proposed large aircraft might end up with imported engines, adds Liu, whose remarks to state media during this month's annual session of parliament have been the main source of the latest project information. More... (Aviation Week)

[hiss srq]

Oh no! I wonder if they are going to stamp "made in china" on the belly like all the toy planes I used to have as a kid.

[Mateo]

There are Chinese-built EMB-145s? I know they built something like 20 MD-80s for McDoug back in the day - has anyone ever studied the relative reliability between the American-built ones and the Chinese-built ones, especially among carriers that operated both (like Spirit)? It's not surprising that they're going to get in on the commercial jet market - there's a market there for new, cheap planes, but the Russians just weren't able to capture that niche like they could have.

[Matt Molnar]

They're going to have to get over some major quality assurance concerns if they want foreign airlines to buy them, especially if they're going to use all new homemade components like engines.

[nwafan20]

I think China here is looking more into the domestic China market rather than overseas sales.