Recently, China Commercial Development Company organized a mobilization meeting to accelerate the promotion of Yangtze River 1000A airworthiness evidence collection. The outside world speculated that the convening of this mobilization meeting may very well mean that the Yangtze River 1000A engine has made breakthrough progress. At the same time, this also means that the work of C919 using domestic power to completely replace Western engines has begun to count down.
combined with the rumors that the Yangtze River 1000A engine has successfully completed ground technology verification machine testing and will soon conduct high-altitude platform flight tests on Y-20. We have reason to believe that the Yangtze River 1000A engine has completed the prototype development work, and a sufficient number of engine prototypes have been put into testing work. Next, as long as these engines pass the test and complete the airworthiness certificate certification collection work, the Yangtze River 1000A engine will be energy-generating and installed on the C919 passenger aircraft , allowing China's own passenger aircraft to use domestic engines.
Yangtze River 1000A high-altitude platform test concept diagram
This reason is that from the time nodes of a series of information about the Yangtze River 1000A engine disclosed by China Business Development, the development of the Yangtze River 1000A engine has entered the final stage as early as September 2021.
Considering that after the engine has completed the development and production of the prototype, a series of factory tests usually need to be carried out, including test work, and ground table tests are carried out after the factory test is completed to collect data to prepare for subsequent high-altitude platform flight tests and airworthiness evidence collection work.
Yangtze River 1000A engine
If the prototype of the Yangtze River 1000A was designed and manufactured at the end of 2021, then as of October this year, the mobilization meeting was held, and the period was 10 months apart, which was enough for the Yangtze River 1000A to complete these preliminary preparations. The purpose of the mobilization meeting is to "accelerate the promotion" of the airworthiness evidence collection work of the Yangtze River 1000A engine, and the prerequisite for accelerating this work is that there must be a sufficient number of engines for testing.
The Yangtze River 1000A engine may have completed the production of small batch verification prototypes, which is only a shortcoming step to mass production through the airworthiness evidence collection work. As long as it passes the test, the Yangtze River 1000A can rely on the C919 passenger aircraft platform to invest in commercial operations.
C919 passenger plane
Of course, it is not easy to kick this kick. Because the Yangtze River 1000A is a civil aviation engine, the most important indicator of a civil aviation engine is that it is safe and reliable enough.
In order to verify the safety and reliability of the engine, the airworthiness forensics test usually conducts various extreme pressure tests on the engine. Including but not limited to testing the engine's operating state in various extreme weather conditions and the reliability and service life of the engine after experiencing extreme working environments.
The entire testing time required for
is far more than that of factory testing and ground table testing, and it often needs to be calculated in years. So although the Yangtze River 1000A is only one step away from being put into use, we still need to wait at least 2-3 years before we can see this type of engine on domestic passenger planes.
But no matter what, the progress of the development of the Yangtze River 1000A engine has allowed us to see that China has made major breakthroughs in the development of domestically produced large thrust and large bypass ratio turbofan engines.
Yangtze River 1000A engine model
The most obvious advantage brought by this progress is that it allows Chinese passenger aircraft to use domestic engines instead of using domestic engines to continue to maintain the normal operation of the civil aviation fleet when they are separated from the supply chain of Western countries and cannot purchase or repair imported engines, thus forcing Western countries to dare not impose a technical blockade or equipment embargo on China at will.
You should know that after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Russia was subject to large-scale sanctions from Western countries, which led to the loss of a large number of imported parts supply chains, including various engine maintenance parts used by the Russian civil aviation fleet.
Due to the inability to replenish the parts in stock, major Russian civil aviation companies have substantially lost the ability to maintain civil aviation passenger planes.So much so that major airlines have to reduce the fleet size and remove parts of the grounded passenger planes to maintain other passenger planes to maintain the normal operation of domestic civil aviation routes.
Although Russia also has domestic MS-21 passenger aircraft and supporting PD-14 engines, it can theoretically replace imported passenger aircraft from Russia. However, due to Russia's insufficient industrial capacity and a small civil aviation market, it is difficult for the MS-21 passenger plane to fill Russia's domestic demand in the short term.
Russian MS-21 passenger plane and PD-14 engine
It is precisely because Russia's civil aviation market is small and its production capacity is insufficient, so Western countries are not worried about how much damage this sanction will cause to them.
But China is different. As the world's second largest air transportation market, China has a huge market size and industrial capacity that can meet this scale.
If Western countries plan to sanction China like Russia, then they will not only lose the Chinese market, but will also give China's domestic engine a once-in-a-lifetime development opportunity.
At that time, China will not only have reason to fully use the Yangtze River 1000A on the C919 passenger plane to improve the localization of the civil aviation fleet, but it can even take this opportunity to further promote the development of CR929 and the supporting AEF-3500 engine, thereby breaking the monopoly of Western countries in the field of large wide-body trunk passenger planes.
CR929 passenger aircraft
In general, the successful promotion of the Yangtze River 1000A engine project is of milestone significance for the development of China's domestically produced large thrust and large bypass ratio turbofan engines, as well as the independent development of the entire civil aviation passenger aircraft .
believes that in the near future, China's passenger planes can also use our own engines like military planes, completely breaking the monopoly shackles of Western countries in the civil aviation field, and allowing China's own passenger planes to fly to the world.
