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COMAC C919

2022 MODERN AIRCRAFT FUTURE FLIGHT

History

The state-owned airline COMAC (Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China) was established in 2008 and is headquartered in Shanghai, China. Its main focus is the airliner industry, and its relatively modest roster is now represented by several in-development and upcoming products, led by the ARJ31, followed by the C919.

Future plans will include larger C929 and C939 products.

The C919 is offered as a twin-engine people carrier with a narrow body and a center aisle for short to medium distances. Its passenger capacity ranges from 150 to 190, up from 70 to 105 on the previous short-haul ARJ21. The C919 is China's largest domestic airliner program since the 1980s, carrying only three of the eventually scrapped four-engine Shanghai Haitian 10 production aircraft.

The C919 is in the same class as the U.S. Boeing 737 and the French Airbus A320, which currently account for a large portion of the small-to-medium market.

As of this writing (January 2014), the aircraft is still in development and is expected to make its maiden flight by the end of 2015. It has been type-approved in China (2010), but not yet certified to operate in Western airspace - which could seriously affect its export value.

In the future, the manufacturing process of the C919 will be jointly completed by a number of Chinese manufacturers including Hongdu, and the engine will be provided by French CFM International. Avionics will also be imported in the near future along with possible local development kits.

COMAC intends to produce a single standard airframe and modify it to suit a variety of different roles, including general two-class passenger, commercial cargo and VIP/business jets.

The standard C919 has a two-class seating configuration for up to 156 passengers and two crew members. The overall length is 127 feet 7 inches, the wingspan is 117 feet 5 inches, and the overall height is 39 feet.

Maximum take-off weight (MTOW) is estimated to be around 170,000 pounds, and a range of up to 4,050 kilometers (another proposed model could reach 5,550 kilometers). CFM International's "LEAP-1C" turbofan will provide 25,000 to 30,000 pounds of thrust, enabling the airframe to fly at 520 miles per hour with a service ceiling of 39,500 feet.

So far, about 400 aircraft have been ordered from 16 customers including Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Joy Air, and Sichuan Airlines. The largest customer (currently) is CCB Financial Leasing with an order of 50 aircraft.

The machine was originally scheduled to be officially launched in 2016. However, the May 2015 update indicated that the C919 would be ready for service sometime in 2019-2020. Now it looks like the series won't start until 2021.