Let’s take a look at where its parts suppliers come from.
It can be seen from this list of online suppliers that only the outer “shells” such as fuselage, wings, and hatches come from Chinese companies, while important systems and components including engines, avionics systems, and flight controllers come from European and American countries.
In addition to the fuselage structure made in China, it can be seen from the latest supplier information released by COMAC (C919 manufacturer) that in fact, more Chinese companies and Sino-foreign joint ventures are involved in the manufacturing of the C919 core system.
The supply of main systems such as avionics and landing gear seems to be borne by foreign companies, but many of the “subsystems” that make up these main systems are domestically produced.
For example, the display system for the C919 is the China Institute of Aviation Radioelectronics, a veteran scientific research unit in Shanghai; The cabin core control system and information system are also domestically developed.
According to China Business Daily, as of April 2021, C919 has involved 16 Sino-foreign joint ventures, providing them with important systems such as avionics, flight control and communication and navigation.
China has gradually mastered key technologies and industrial chains through joint ventures with European and American suppliers and the establishment of domestic production lines, and the proportion of domestic production of systems and components is increasing.
C919 is indeed an “assembly machine”!
“Assembling” an aircraft is not as easy as assembling a computer.
The “assembly” of large aircraft is a complex and systematic integrated project, and China’s independent intellectual property rights for large aircraft are reflected in the overall control between systems.
The vice president of Boeing once said: If people could assemble the parts they bought and make it fly, there would not be only two large aircraft manufacturers in the world (Boeing and Airbus).
The manufacturer of the C919, COMAC, is the third in the world after Boeing and Airbus.
Wu Guanghui, chief designer of C919, said: There are millions of interfaces on the C919 aircraft, which is related to the relationship between multiple systems such as hydraulics and avionics, and is by no means a simple splicing. How to relate depends on the design of the aircraft.
In other words, in the R&D and manufacturing process of C919, China plays the role of “director” and is the core controller of the entire engineering project.
Author: Drink tea and chat
1. Technically, the C919 aircraft has the conditions for mass production and delivery at any time, and according to the information I have, its localization far exceeds the situation felt by foreign counterparts and the public.
2. From the perspective of airworthiness certification, domestic certification is steadily advancing, and European and American certification also depends on the international environment. The Civil Aviation Administration of China and C919 are systematically symbiotic and coexisting, which means that if C919 cannot pass the airworthiness certification of CAAC, it is no exaggeration to say that the Airworthiness Department of the Civil Aviation Administration of China can be disbanded. The staff of China’s Airworthiness Department and COMAC’s airworthiness team are old classmates and old bosses and subordinates. You have me in both A and B, and I have you. If there is a conflict in the process of collecting evidence, it is entirely possible for the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee to directly appoint a leader of COMAC to take over the Airworthiness Division. Therefore, there is no hard problem with the airworthiness of the C919 at all, and when it will be completed mainly depends on the maturity of the timing.
3. From the perspective of customer orders, large domestic airlines, such as China Eastern Airlines, Air China, and China Southern Airlines, are also state-owned enterprises, and the big bosses are also central management cadres. It is no exaggeration to say that they are all cooperating with each other’s performances, and if they play with their personality and do not listen to the director, the light ones will be transferred away, and the heavy ones will be dismissed.
4. C919 is delayed in delivery, production and after-sales cost control is the reason. The various tests and verifications of C919 are not perfect, after all, some of them have to be tested while using them, and they have to be modified while trying. In fact, COMAC’s team finds designs and solutions that can be improved almost every week. Although these findings will not overturn the previous plan, if they are not implemented in time now, it may take more time and cost to catch up later. No matter which company it is, there are always new problems with new aircraft, including Boeing and Airbus, and are these issues the responsibility of the aircraft company or the airline after delivery? If a dispute arises, COMAC is also in a vulnerable position at this stage, and COMAC is facing a huge risk of after-sales service costs to bear a wider range of after-sales liability. The best way to eliminate the risk of future production costs and after-sales service costs is to further improve it.
5. The aircraft market is not only very voluminous, Boeing and Airbus are precarious, but also capital is rampant, the United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil are typical negative teaching materials, without full certainty, we dare not deliver easily. Coupled with the historical reasons of Yun Shi, we can’t afford to lose, and we can’t play with the mentality of gambling. In addition, Russia has such a thick foundation and has been engaged in large aircraft for many years, and people are not in a hurry to go public. Although Russia follows the Siberian style, the GTF scheme is preferred, after all, there is still a conflict with the C919. This is not easy to say, maybe the top management has a tacit understanding and backs up each other, maybe the top management has not discussed how to go public. In short, the timing of the market environment is the biggest problem.
1. Technically, the C919 aircraft has the conditions for mass production and delivery at any time, and according to the information I have, its localization far exceeds the situation felt by foreign counterparts and the public.
2. From the perspective of airworthiness certification, domestic certification is steadily advancing, and European and American certification also depends on the international environment. The Civil Aviation Administration of China and C919 are systematically symbiotic and coexisting, which means that if C919 cannot pass the airworthiness certification of CAAC, it is no exaggeration to say that the Airworthiness Department of the Civil Aviation Administration of China can be disbanded. The staff of China’s Airworthiness Department and COMAC’s airworthiness team are old classmates and old bosses and subordinates. You have me in both A and B, and I have you. If there is a conflict in the process of collecting evidence, it is entirely possible for the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee to directly appoint a leader of COMAC to take over the Airworthiness Division. Therefore, there is no hard problem with the airworthiness of the C919 at all, and when it will be completed mainly depends on the maturity of the timing.
3. From the perspective of customer orders, large domestic airlines, such as China Eastern Airlines, Air China, and China Southern Airlines, are also state-owned enterprises, and the big bosses are also central management cadres. It is no exaggeration to say that they are all cooperating with each other’s performances, and if they play with their personality and do not listen to the director, the light ones will be transferred away, and the heavy ones will be dismissed.
4. C919 is delayed in delivery, production and after-sales cost control is the reason. The various tests and verifications of C919 are not perfect, after all, some of them have to be tested while using them, and they have to be modified while trying. In fact, COMAC’s team finds designs and solutions that can be improved almost every week. Although these findings will not overturn the previous plan, if they are not implemented in time now, it may take more time and cost to catch up later. No matter which company it is, there are always new problems with new aircraft, including Boeing and Airbus, and are these issues the responsibility of the aircraft company or the airline after delivery? If a dispute arises, COMAC is also in a vulnerable position at this stage, and COMAC is facing a huge risk of after-sales service costs to bear a wider range of after-sales liability. The best way to eliminate the risk of future production costs and after-sales service costs is to further improve it.
5. The aircraft market is not only very voluminous, Boeing and Airbus are precarious, but also capital is rampant, the United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil are typical negative teaching materials, without full certainty, we dare not deliver easily. Coupled with the historical reasons of Yun Shi, we can’t afford to lose, and we can’t play with the mentality of gambling. In addition, Russia has such a thick foundation and has been engaged in large aircraft for many years, and people are not in a hurry to go public. Although Russia follows the Siberian style, the GTF scheme is preferred, after all, there is still a conflict with the C919. This is not easy to say, maybe the top management has a tacit understanding and backs up each other, maybe the top management has not discussed how to go public. In short, the timing of the market environment is the biggest problem.
Author: Happy Vest
Drawing on some information on the Internet, I will try to answer this question, there are shortcomings, I hope you will forgive me.
Author: Happy Vest
Drawing on some information on the Internet, I will try to answer this question, there are shortcomings, I hope you will forgive me.
First, let’s look at this diagram to organize the list of C919 suppliers:
It can be seen that the fuselage shell part is domestically produced, and the other electronic systems and control systems are basically provided by American companies, and the power system is provided by the US-French joint venture, so simply from the list, most people do not agree that the C919 is a domestic large aircraft, so why can we still say that the C919 has independent intellectual property rights?
Second, intellectual property rights: C919 is designed and produced by COMAC’s team as the core, from aircraft design, final assembly to test flight, sales and other key links are controlled by COMAC, so from this point of view, C919 has independent intellectual property rights. Although the proportion of imported parts is 50%-60%, the technical indicators, parameters, and performance requirements of the parts are all from COMAC, and foreign suppliers are supplied according to the order requirements. Analogy with Boeing and Airbus is not entirely the use of American or French components. Taking the Boeing 787 as an example, Boeing’s work includes aircraft design, manufacturing and final test flight, etc., with a localization rate of about 35%, its assembly, development, and intellectual property rights are in Boeing, but many parts manufacturing business is subcontracted to other countries, such as Japan accounts for 35% of the Boeing 787’s work, the United States Vought and Italy account for 26%, and the remaining about 40% is jointly borne by Brazil, Russia, China and other countries. Carolyn Covey, vice president of Boeing Civil Aircraft Group, once said: “If people could assemble the parts they bought and make it fly, there would be no more than two large aircraft manufacturers in the world. ”
Finally, let’s talk about our breakthroughs, first of all, the research and development of key materials and the manufacturing of parts, driven by the design and research and development of C919, domestic relevant high-efficiency and scientific research units have carried out a large number of R&D and public relations, although many parts still need to be mined at this stage, but we have also made significant progress, such as the 35-ton domestic AEF3500 large bypass ratio engine exhibited at the Russian Air Show for the first time, its technical level catches up with the international level, and surpasses the Ruida 1000 engine of the British Rolls-Royce Company. This is the positive impact of the large aircraft project on the relevant domestic industrial system.