Yi Peng took a day off so he could walk through a model of China’s first large passenger plane.
“We are proud of this -- it’s a China-made plane,” self- employed Yi, 40, said as he waited with his wife to enter the full-size mockup at the Zhuhai air show yesterday. “If it were an imported plane, we wouldn’t be lining up.”
Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China announced its first 100 orders for the 166-seat C919 plane at the show as China strives to challenge Boeing Co. and Airbus SAS in the $70 billion-a-year global aircraft market. The nation is also developing high-speed trains, supercomputers and mobile-phone systems to create better-paying jobs and reduce its reliance on imports.
“The airplane is a big deal,” Mark Howes, Asia-Pacific president for Honeywell International Inc., a parts supplier for the C919, said at the show in southern China. “It’s a national program in terms of importance to the Chinese government.”
Visitors to Comac’s 1,500 square-meter (16,000 square-foot) show stand are able to tour the model cabin and cockpit in groups of about 15. They climb up boarding steps to reach the aircraft door, where two women dressed in red stewardesses uniform welcome them inside.
“The interior is clean and bright, not a bad feel overall,” said Jennifer Huo, 34, a Shanghai-based public- relations executive after her tour. “I feel proud that China can come up with such a plane.”
In-development Plane
The in-development aircraft is due to make its maiden flight in 2014 and enter service two years later. It will have a range of 2,200 nautical miles (3,500 km), according to details at the stand. It competes against Boeing’s 737 and Airbus’s A320, the planemakers’ most popular models.
Comac announced deals for as many as 100 C919s at the show from General Electric Co.’s leasing arm, and Chinese companies, including the nation’s big three carriers -- Air China Ltd., China Southern Airlines Co. and China Eastern Airlines Corp. It didn’t say how many planes each customer had ordered.
GE Capital Aviation Services Ltd., the world’s largest plane lessor, separately said it had signed a letter of intent for five planes with options for five more. GE’s venture with Safran SA, CFM International, will also supply engines for the C919 as the company works to boost sales in the world’s fastest- growing major economy.
Prove Performance
Ilyushin Finance Co., Russia’s biggest aircraft-leasing company, isn’t yet planning to follow GE in ordering C919s, Deputy Director General Ostrovskiy Yury said after his visit to the plane mockup. Comac first has to show that the C919 will meet performance pledges and win approval for the aircraft from overseas regulators, he said.
“If the Chinese aviation industry can improve their aircraft to such a quality that they can meet international certification, they would be more interesting for us,” he said.
Talks on leasing MA600 turboprops to Russian airlines have stumbled on a lack of certification, he said. The MA600 is made by Xi’an Aircraft Industry (Group) Co., a unit of Aviation Industry Corp. of China, or AVIC.
United Technologies Corp.’s Hamilton Sundstrand Corp. unit and Safran announced the formation of ventures at the show that will supply parts for the C919. Overseas suppliers are usually partnering with units of AVIC, the nation’s biggest aerospace company, to work on the plane.
Partsmakers are backing the aircraft because of surging growth in China’s aviation market. The country will likely need 4,265 new passenger planes through 2029, as economic growth will cause a fivefold jump in air travel, according to AVIC, which is an investor in Comac. The planemaker aims to sell 2,000 C919s worldwide over 20 years.
“Given china’s prowess, we should have been able to come up with a large plane much earlier,” said Huo, the PR executive, who visited the mockup. “But it’s not too late.”
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