China-Europe aviation cooperation is accelerating, but China-Russia aviation cooperation is in trouble.
After China's three major airlines bought 292 European Airbus A320 aircraft at a bargain price, China C919 also obtained the EU airworthiness certificate . This means that C919 will have the opportunity to enter European routes and open up the international market for C919.
For now, China and the United States, the European Union and Russia have cooperation in aviation. Sino-US aviation cooperation is a pure buyer-seller relationship, mainly involving the purchase of American Boeing aircraft. China-Europe cooperation adds another layer of industrial chain cooperation on the basis of the buyer-seller relationship.
Specifically, Airbus has set up a final assembly plant in Tianjin, China, to help China train basic aviation industry workers and related engineers. In addition, in the C919 project, the French Safran Group is also the core engine supplier.
Sino-Russian aviation cooperation is a joint research and development model that exchanges market for technology. Russia provides core engine technology, and China transfers part of the aviation market to replace Russia's large aircraft manufacturing technology.
Among these three cooperation models, China-Europe aviation cooperation is the smoothest and has gone the furthest. After the C919 obtained the EU airworthiness certificate, the C919 has basically embarked on the right track of domestic and international routes and has great international potential.
is the latest to start, and the slowest progress is the Sino-Russian joint development of the CR929 wide-body passenger aircraft project . The project was officially launched in September 2017. It was jointly developed by COMAC and Russia's United Aviation Manufacturing Group to jointly create a new wide-body passenger aircraft to break the wide-body competition between American Boeing and European Airbus. Monopoly position of large aircraft.
This is a national-level commercial passenger aircraft manufacturing project led by the Chinese and Russian governments and vigorously promoted. From the project itself, the imagination of CR929 is very beautiful. Once successfully developed, China will be able to break the monopoly of Europe and the United States in terms of wide-body passenger aircraft, quickly seize a place in the international civil aviation market, and may even form a tripartite pattern of China, Russia, the European Union, and the United States.
However, the development of CR929 was not smooth from the beginning. There are huge differences in interests between China and Russia. Russia’s idea is that Russia will provide the core engine and master the core technology, while China will be responsible for funding and sharing costs, including the fuselage, wings, tail, and final assembly. For this reason, Russia selected the Russian-made PD-35 turbofan engine in advance. After the successful development of CR929, Russia purchased approximately 50 aircraft, while China purchased approximately 450-500 aircraft.
Russian PD-35 turbofan engine core machine ground test
In this way, Russia can control the core technology of CR929 with less investment and capture China's large civil aviation market.
But China’s idea is that I can pay more or sell the market, but you must share the core technology with me. If we want to replace China's civil aviation market, we need to use key technologies in exchange. Otherwise, China will contribute both money and effort, and the market will give in. In the end, only one assembly plant will be built. This is unacceptable to China.
Moreover, if the Russian PD-35 engine is used, the CR929 wide-body passenger aircraft is likely to become a big toy for China and Russia. It will not be able to enter the international market and will not be able to fly outside China and Russia. For China, in addition to the Russian-made PD-35 engine, there are also American-made General Electric GEnX and British-made Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines to choose from.
Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engine
Under the premise that Russia is unwilling to share core technology, China is also unwilling to let Russia dictate the fate of the CR929 wide-body passenger aircraft. In contrast, China prefers to use Western engines to contain Russian-made engines. The most important thing is that China hopes that after CR929 is produced, it can obtain airworthiness certificates from Europe and the United States and fly to international routes.
To put it bluntly, they use European and American engines as bargaining chips to put pressure on Russia, hoping that Russia will share its core technology.As long as Russia shares its core technologies, it is not impossible for China to abandon European and American engines.
However, due to this serious disagreement, the research and development work of the CR929 wide-body passenger aircraft was briefly suspended. Because Russia firmly refuses to transfer core technology to China. Since then, the development of CR929 has been further slowed down, but the two sides have not completely broken up. Basically, CR929 is in a state of rapid development.
After entering 2022, the Russia-Ukraine war started, and the West imposed comprehensive sanctions on Russia. This leaves the CR929 wide-body airliner with a choice between Russia and the West. Russia proposed from the perspective of its own interests that all Chinese and Russian components should be used and Western suppliers would be kicked out.
However, in the initial development plan of CR929, it was dominated by China and Russia, but some components from Western companies were used. If all are replaced with Chinese and Russian components, the original design plan and many development results will need to be overturned, and the rollout time of CR929 will be delayed again by 2-3 years.
In addition, China’s independently developed CJ2000 engine has also made great progress. Chinese engineers have fewer and fewer technologies to learn from Russia. Under this circumstance, China's voice has been significantly improved, and the development of CR929 has gradually deviated from Russia's plan.
Design drawings of three civil aviation engines, Yangtze 500, Yangtze 1000 and Yangtze 2000.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said: and China’s joint development project “has not developed in a direction suitable for us” and Russia is considering Withdrew from the research and development of CR929 wide-body passenger aircraft. After China became an industrial giant, it became increasingly dissatisfied with our services.
"The Chinese have more needs than we do today. Our participation is getting lower and lower. I don't want to predict the future of this project, whether we want to leave it or not, but this is certainly the case now."
In the captain's view, Russia’s withdrawal from the CR929 large passenger aircraft joint research and development project is also a good thing. In terms of core technology, neither Russia nor Europe and the United States are reliable. If we rely on Russian engines, then the CR929 will be blocked by Europe and the United States and can only fly between China and Russia, becoming a big toy for China and Russia.
If we rely on Europe and the United States, then the sanctions imposed on Russia today may be faced by us in the future. Once Europe and the United States cut off engine supply to China, CR929 will lose power.
It is better to ask for others than to ask for yourself. Core technology cannot be bought. Only by insisting on independent research and development and mastering core engine technology can China's large aircraft fly freely among the blue sky and white clouds without restriction.
