Chinese company slated to produce ‘jumbo aircraft’ to be launched this month
06 Mar 2008
China is preparing to formally launch the Shanghai-based company that will design and construct "jumbo aircraft." The new manufacturing company is scheduled to begin operations this month.
China's State-owned assets supervision and administration commission of the state council will be the controlling shareholder of the new entity, which will include AVIC I and AVIC II. These two aerospace entities will hold the second-largest stake jointly along with the Shanghai local government, Baosteel Group and Aluminum Corp of China.
According to industry speculation, chief designer, Wu Guanghui, who developed the locally produced ARJ21 aircraft, will play the same role in the development of the large commercial passenger aircraft.
Wu has expressed his confidence in the programme saying that China's efforts to produce a successful airplane would be a "long process" owing to technical bottlenecks, marketing issues and an absence of MRO support systems.
Wu also called on Beijing to provide long-term financial support to the programme.
So far, the Chinese government has allocated CNY50-CNY60 billion ($7.03-$8.43 billion) towards local production of large military and commercial aircraft and engines.
