The long-awaited moment has finally arrived. As one of the "three musketeers of domestic large aircraft", the C919 trunk passenger plane has finally obtained the model certificate of conformity under the Civil Aviation Administration of China and will be delivered to the first aircraft by the end of 2022. This means that all the development work of this type of passenger aircraft has been completely completed, and it also announces that the domestic trunk passenger aircraft technology is mature enough to officially participate in market competition.
Large trunk passenger aircraft are not only the top products in the aviation industry, but also one of the most valuable high-tech industrial products. The so-called "China exchanged 800 million shirts for an American Boeing passenger plane" more than 10 years ago, although it was somewhat exaggerated, it vividly demonstrated the huge profits of large civil aircraft and the significant value of related products in the industrial field.
China did not start late in civilian large aircraft, but it also took many detours. To this day, many people sigh that the Y-10 passenger aircraft project is actually far from mature enough today, especially in terms of body life and operating costs, it is far from reaching the passing line of modern civil passenger aircraft. Strictly speaking, the first domestic product that truly meets the standards of modern passenger aircraft is actually the ARJ-21 regional passenger aircraft. With this aircraft, Chinese domestic passenger aircraft have reached the forefront of market-oriented demand and civil aviation technology for the first time, becoming the beginning of the regular development of domestic passenger aircraft.
It is no exaggeration to say that the failure of the Y-10 project in the 1970s and 1980s shows that the strength of the China's aviation industry at that time had the basic conditions for "can build" large aircraft, but it was far from the level of "building well". This is not just a matter of whether the cost investment in all aspects can meet the standards, but that the domestic technology and hardware did not reach the world's advanced level at that time.
Even in today's C919 large aircraft project, some parts and technologies still need to be introduced from abroad. But it is gratifying that China has always firmly grasped the most important intellectual property rights of an aircraft, namely overall design and overall integration technology. From this perspective, the project technology starting point of the C919 large aircraft is very high, and it aims at the international advanced level at the initial design level, laying a good foundation for the success of the entire project.
Moreover, the temporary reliance on the introduction of certain components and subsystems of C919 passenger aircraft does not mean that China has abandoned the process of domestic production in related fields. In fact, domestic supporting industries have been tracking and developing imported parts. Whether it is re-development or "reverse engineering", related technological progress is accumulating step by step. With the deepening of Sino-US trade frictions, the economic "decoupling" trend between the two countries has shown some performance in many manufacturing fields. It is not difficult for us to find that the domestic "spare tires" of many supporting projects of the C919 passenger aircraft have shown momentum in recent years, and more and more parts and subsystems are gradually being replaced with domestic products.
With the upcoming delivery of C919, domestic airlines will put the aircraft into commercial operation starting from 2023. With the huge demand in the domestic aviation market, the current order volume alone is enough for COMAC to produce for many years. Looking ahead, once the C919 is expected to open up the international market and the continuous advancement of large aircraft projects such as CR929, China will be expected to become one of the heavyweight players that cannot be underestimated in the global civil aircraft field.
