China’s Comac C919 narrowbody jet deliveries to start in 2022

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A senior Comac official has told local news media that the company will start delivering its C919 narrowbody aircraft in 2022, while stressing that the pandemic’s impact on production is still “under control”.

Comac deputy general manager and chief accountant Wu Yongliang was quoted in Shanghai-based news outlet The Paper as saying that the aircraft was still in the process of being certificated by Chinese aviation regulators.

Comac had previously targeted type certification and delivery to launch customer China Eastern Airlines by end-2021. However, the airframer on 2 January said that its six test aircraft were still “undergoing test flights in several locations in the country”.

Wu, in comments made at the sidelines of the a high-level political meeting in Shanghai, adds that work is progressing “in an orderly manner” even amid a recent spike of coronavirus infections across the country.

The Comac C919 is a narrow-body airliner developed by Chinese aircraft manufacturer Comac. The development program was launched in 2008. Production of the prototype began in December 2011, with the first prototype being ready on 2 November 2015 and having its maiden flight on 5 May 2017. First commercial deliveries of the aircraft were expected in 2021 to China Eastern Airlines.

The C919, though a Chinese aircraft program, is highly dependent on Western technologies. The jet, primarily constructed with aluminium alloys, is to be powered by either CFM International LEAP or ACAE CJ-1000A turbofan engines, and be able to carry 156 to 168 passengers in a normal operating configuration up to 5,555 km (3000 nmi).

The C919 program is a homegrown competitor to Airbus’ A320 family and Boeing’s 737 program, and faces the likelihood of missing “certification and production targets”, amid stricter US export rules.

According to a report from cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike and a US Justice Department indictment, from 2010 to 2015 the Chinese cyberthreat actor Turbine Panda, linked to the Ministry of State Security’s Jiangsu Bureau, penetrated a number of the C919’s foreign components manufacturers including Ametek, Capstone Turbine, GE Aviation, Honeywell, Safran, and others and stole intellectual property and industrial processes data with the aim of transitioning component manufacturing to Chinese companies. The report stated that the operations involved both cyber intrusion and theft as well as HUMINT operations, in most cases using a piece of code custom written for this industrial espionage operation. As of 2019, four people have been arrested in the US as a result of investigations into this economic espionage and theft of trade secrets.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China has previously stated that it “places great importance in C919 certification work”, and that it was “working closely” with Comac to complete airworthiness reviews and subsequent certification and service entry.

Launch customer China Eastern has five aircraft on order, and Comac holds commitments for close to 300 other examples. AirGuide & Flightglobal.com

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