The development of high-quality, large aircraft remains one of the key ingredients of China’s latest five-year planning. The aircraft should be safe, with a focus on design and the supply chain. The civil aviation industry was specifically mentioned by General Secretary Xi Jinping during last week’s 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Large aircraft remain key part of Xi's aviation strategy. COMAC, which has been tasked with developing China’s commercial aircraft strategy, shared some details of Xi’s presentation on its website. In often verbose language, the reports describe how COMAC staff was watching Xi’s opening speech, sitting in a hangar in Shanghai next to a C919 in the final assembly and at other sites. “In the report of the 20th National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that major achievements have been made in the manufacture of large aircraft. When meeting with representatives of the C919 project team, it was emphasized that safety and reliability should be put first and all potential safety hazards should be eliminated. It is necessary to deeply understand the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions on the quality and safety of large aircraft, view quality and safety from a political height, and always regard safety and quality as a top priority”, as the statement said on October 18. The COMAC C919 field test team in Dongying is watching the opening meeting of the 20th National Congress. (COMAC) In the same statement, COMAC Chairman Hu Dongfeng shared some interesting insights into the situation at the Chinese airframer. Dongfeng said “we must face up to the company's current quality and safety problems. We must adhere to the safety and quality system for a long time, adhere to the safety and quality awareness for a long time, adhere to the safety and quality foundation for a long time.” Dongfeng also made “forward suggestions on model development, mass production, operation support, etc., emphasizing that we should make further efforts in product system engineering, management system, quality control, quality assurance system, process control, supplier control, customer support, and supplier cultivation, etc., solid and down-to-earth, and truly achieve safety first and quality first.” The emphasis on safety and quality was repeated by many others in the statement, which is an indication that it is now a party line that COMAC apparently must up its game in these areas. The COMAC C919 was awarded the Chinese type certification in late September. A commercial manager of the program said that “the first user will be delivered at the end of the year, and the large aircraft business has opened a new chapter.” This first user will be China Eastern Airlines, which has said before that it expects to take delivery of the first C919 this year and four more in 2023. However, in its September traffic data, the C919 is not listed with only the ARJ21 mentioned with two deliveries remaining this year and seven next year. CR929 manufacturing A flight simulator supervisor mentioned in a release that manufacturing of the CR929 widebody aircraft has started, without adding details. The future of the project has been in doubt, especially since Russia launched the war in Ukraine. The CR929 is a Chino-Russian joint venture project, in which Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) and COMAC work together in China-Russia International Aircraft Corporation (CRAIC). The program was officially launched in April 2016 by Xi and Vladimir Putin, with the aim to develop a family of three widebody aircraft. CRAIC is believed to have been in the process of selecting a Western engine supplier, but this option must be ruled out now since Russia is subject to international sanctions for Ukraine and China is also under increasing high-tech embargoes from the US. Without a Western powerplant available, the CR929 would rely on the all-new Aviadvigatel PD-35 engine which is still under development. As a member of the C919 field test team put it: “The C919 obtaining the type certificate is our stage achievement, but we must be more soberly aware that the road ahead is still very long, and there are still many difficulties that we need to overcome one by one.”
