China to compete with Boeing, Airbus for jumbo passenger planes

09 March 2009

Passenger plane manufacturers Boeing and Airbus will soon be facing intense competition frrom China, which has one of the largest aviation markets in the world, will bring out its own passenger planes in 2017.

The high-capacity Jumbo-jets that are made to carry 200 to 800 passengers has been monopolised by Boeing's 747 and the new Airbus's A-380 aircraft.
China will soon be entering this lucrative market with its own version called the C919, which will have a capacity of 190 seats.

With a booming economy, China had wanted to enter into aircrft manufacturing and in May 2008 set up the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), based in Shanghai with an initial capital of $2.78 billion. COMAC's largets shareholder is the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

China has already finished with the preliminary technical design plan and commercial feasibility study and the Jumbo passenger jet project has 47 local institutions as well as those from abroad for the procurement of supplies and materials including engines.

The projects chief designer and deputy manager of COMAC, Wu Guanghui said at the annual session of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing that C represents China as well as COMAC, the abbreviation for Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd and the first '9' of the C919 means 'forever' in Chinese culture, while '19' stands for the 190 seats on the Jumbo jet.

He also added that the suppliers of engines, airborne equipment, and materials will be chosen through an international bidding and China will prefer foreign suppliers to form a joint venture with Chinese manufacturers but at the same time COMAC will do independent research and manufacturing.
Although China will take the lead in solving the technical problems, it will also use international resources and expertise in design, integration and final assembly.