Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov, who oversees Russia's military and aviation industries, said Russia's participation in the CR929 program is declining. His comments were made during the Future Engineers Forum plenary session on 29 June.
CR929-600 is a planned long-range 280-seat wide-body twin-engine passenger aircraft being developed by Shanghai AVIC, a joint venture between Chinese civil aircraft manufacturer COMAC and Russian aircraft manufacturer United Aircraft Corporation (UAC). .
CR929-600 is a 280-seat long-range wide-body twin-engine passenger aircraft developed by CRAIC, a joint venture between COMAC and China United Airlines.
In his speech at the forum, Borisov said,
"We are cooperating with China on this project. In principle, The project did not develop in a direction that suited us. China, as it became an industrial giant, became less and less interested in our services. "
" We have our designs at TsAGI (Central Aerodynamics Institute). Bureau and rich experience. But the Chinese have more needs than we have today. I don’t want to predict the future of this project, if we will leave,” he further explained, according to Russian state news agency TASS. It, but it is indeed the case now.
Conflicting statements
However, just two months ago, Zhang Hanhui, China’s ambassador to Russia, said in an interview with Tass news agency on May 5 that the two sides had discussed a series of key aspects of the CR929 project. Zhang noted that the development of the CR929 wide-body long-range aircraft is one of the important cooperation projects between the two countries, and the two parties have reached consensus on key issues such as investment, design, and division of labor in R&D. Research and development are proceeding smoothly and sustainably. "
China's ambassador to Russia said in May that Russia and China had reached agreement on a series of key issues for the CR929 joint project.
Air Data News reported that another senior Russian official, Russian Trade and Industry Minister Denis Manturov Manturov said just two weeks ago that the project was being redesigned to no longer rely on Western components.
Manturov said
"CR929 is in the works." But taking into account the new investments, in line with the limitations that exist today in terms of cooperation, which was formed by Chinese partners with the participation of Western manufacturers, now this is not possible, so you have to spend time reorganizing the approach, using only Russian and Chinese manufacturers. ”
Currently, there is no information as to why Russia changed its position on such short notice.
CR929 The program has made little progress since 2019
Unspoken differences
Russia and China generally agreed in 2012 to jointly develop wide-body aircraft. China COMAC and United Airlines signed a memorandum of understanding in 2016 in the presence of leaders of both countries
Initially, Russia wanted the CR929 to be developed based on the Ilyushin IL-96. Russian four-engine long-range wide-body airliner designed in the Soviet era. The reason is simple. They need a new wide-body model to replace the aging IL-96. However, China strongly opposed this idea. A twin-engine, wide-body airliner, much like the Airbus A330 or the Boeing 787, is designed to challenge the duopoly of Airbus and Boeing. Russia hopes the CR929 can replace its aging IL-96. Since then, Russia has wanted the CR929 to rely strictly on Russian and Chinese suppliers, including engines and other important aircraft systems. However, China has learned from its earlier Y-10 project and insisted on participation and cooperation with the international aviation industry. To ensure the commercial success of the project.
At the beginning of the cooperation, both parties need each other.China needs Russia's experience in overall design, fuselage structure, aerodynamic design, etc. This is difficult for the Western world to achieve. On the other hand, Russia needs Chinese capital investment, which is crucial for its wide-body aircraft development plans. However, as the ARJ21 and C919 projects progress, Russia becomes increasingly isolated in the international community, and China gains less and less experience in cooperation and assumes more and more responsibilities. Eventually, the balance of cooperation began to tip.
What do you think is the future of the CR929 program? Will China and COMAC eventually take matters into their own hands, remove the "R" and change back to C929? Or will everything be done by Russia and China themselves? Welcome to leave a message and comment.
