ARJ21 or C919 Not Going Anywher, in Part Because China Does Not What It Is Doing

choi

(1) Leithen Francis, Chinese Checkers; China and Indonesia set the stage for greater industrial cooperation. Aviation Week,
Mar 27, 2012 (cover date), at page 39.

Quote:

"During the Singapore Airshow this month, the Commercial Aircraft of China (Comac) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Indonesia's national carrier, Merpati Nusantara, for the sale of 40 Comac ARJ21-700 regional jets.

"While the Chinese aerospace industry's push can be touted as a smart strategic move [to stave off competition], Comac 's choice of Merpati could be viewed as an act of desperation. Merpati is heavily in debt and the poor state of its finances has meant it has encountered problems winning the confidence of aircraft lessors. Industry executives say Merpati is opting for the ARJ21 because it knows it cannot afford Western aircraft. But it can afford to buy Chinese-made products because, as is the case with the MA60, China is open to financing the deal through soft loans. As for Comac, it has struggled to generate export sales for the ARJ21-700.

"The ARJ21 program started in early 2002, and entry into service with launch operator Shangdong Airlines was originally set for 2006-07. Numerous program delays then pushed back service entry. Shangdong has since said it no longer wants to be the launch operator. Chengdu Airlines, a Chinese airline that Comac partially owns, now appears set to be the first to fly the 90-seater, possibly toward the end of 2012. The fact it has taken 10 years to develop the ARJ21-700 suggests that it is behind in the technology stakes, compared with newer aircraft such as Bombardier CSeries and Embraer E-190 new engine option.

Note:
(a) The report is not available online for non-subscribers. But reading the quotation here is enough.
(b) Xian MA60
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xian_MA60
(a turboprop-powered airliner made by China's Xi'an Aircraft Industrial Corporation under the China Aviation Industry Corporation I (AVIC I); Produced 2000-resent)

(2) Bradley Perrett, Halfway There; The C919, four years into its development cycle, no longer has slack in its schedule. Aviation Week,
Mar 27, 2012, at page 41.
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/g ... l&headline=C919 Design Proceeds, But Without CAAC

(a) My comment:
(i) The online version is quite different from that in the print: the former is much shorter and focuses on one aspect--CAAC.
(ii) Attached please find excerpt of the print version.
(A) photo caption: The C919's wing introduces no great innovation, but Comac is pleased to have achieved a modern design.
(B) wingbox
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingbox

See the sketch in
http://aafo.com/hangartalk/showthread.php?t=9039&page=2

(b) The print edition:

"'The question is; can china buy its way into commercial aircraft?' asks a senior western aeronautical engineer who, thanks to paibful experience in the past decade, knows a thing or two about the challenges in developing an airliner.

"With the Comac C919 now approaching the halfway point of its eight-year development cycle, the answerstill seem to be 'mabe, since china is not yet aiming at building a world-beater.

"Comac built spare time into the C919's development scedule, a tactic that minimized the chance of delivering later than contracted, but at the cost of the aircraft being not so up-to-date when entering service. A senior program official says the spare time has now been used up, partly because the company found that managing suppliers was a lot harder than it expected. 'The schedule is now very tight,' he says.

"Some of those supplier have widely expressed doubt that Comac will achieve its target of a first flight in 2014. * * *

"Detail design of the Comac C919 has begun. * * *

"The biggest immediate problem is still one that emerged last year: The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) is, for the moment, declining to participate in the program, even it should be involved in detail design. 'We want them to become involved as soon as possible,' says the senior program official. This is not happening because the [US] FAA, validating the Chinese authority's certification abilities, is insisting that CAAC first complete certification of the ARJ21 regional jet, which is beinh used as the test case in the process. The ARJ21 is not expected to be certified until late this year, 10 years after program launch.

* * *

"Comac appears reluctant to sign genuine orders because, unsure of its ability to deliver on time, it does not want to compensate for lateness. Yet its ability to push ahead with C919 development with few real orders, if any, reflects its ability to deploy the resources of the Chinese state in pursuit of a national objective: building commercial aircraft.

* * *

"Comac has settled the scheme of structural materials for C919. The center wing box will be made of composites and the outer wing boxes of conventional aluminum alloy--not composites, as previously suggested. The nosewill also be of conventional alloy, the tail cone and rear bulkhead composites and the straight fuselage barrels aluminum-lithum alloy. The tail plane and fin will be composite material.

"The choice of a composite center wing box at the intersection of a metal wing and metal body means that Comac must design the structure to handle differential thermal expansion. Thus, the structure must be unusually strong and therefore heavy. 'That composite center box could easily heavier than an aluminum one,' says a senior aeronautical engineer from outside of the program.

"The C919's wing, spanning 35.8 meters (117.4 ft), is optimized for the first version of the type, the C919-200, says the senior official. Comac does not think it has blazed new trails in wing design; rather it is pleased that it has achieved what it regards as a modern wing of its own design. The target for the ratio of lift to drag in cruising flight, a parameter comparable with engine eficiency in importance, was achieved after much wind-tunnel testing in Europe.

"In getting there, many changes in the aircraft's aerodynamic lines were required--above all, in the integration of the wing and engines. The senior official says this was not at all easy, but Chahrour's version of the story offers a telling insight into Comac's capabilities. Since aerodynamic interference makes integration of the engine and wing notoriously difficult, and since CFM and its owners, GE and Snecma, one might have expected Comac to rely heavily on its supplier in doing this work. Yet Chahrour says: 'The amount of resources we [CFM] invested there was no more than we invested at Airbus to do the same thing' on the A320NEO [New Engine Option].


"Comac expects that the C919 will have better hot-and-high performance than the A320 and Boeing 737, with the airport at Kunming in Yunnan as the reference airfield. the airport is about 1,900 meters above sea level. That implies that, even if the wing and engines are optimized for the C919-200, they should be quite big enough for the eventual stretched version.

"The emphasis on hot-and-high performance seems to partly explain the disappointingly high weight of the aircraft, which a program source put at 78 metric tons (172,000 lb), compared with a figure of 77.3 tons published in late 2010. The comparable version of the A320, without new-generation engines, weighs 73.5 tons at takeoff, has eight fewer seats but, partly thanks to redesigned wing-tip fences, has a range of 6,150 km (3,800 mi). The C919-200's advertised range is 5,555 km. Foreign engineers say they would have expected a new aircraft, exploiting the latest advancesin propulsion, structures and aerodynamics, to be rather lighter than the A320.

* * *

"The Leap-1C [engine to be mounted on C919] is 95-98% the same as the Leap-1A of the A320NEO says Chahrour. The turbomachinery and casings are the same; the minor differences are in the installation.

"One part of the C919 program that one never more than a nice-to-have option, engine assembly, is now looking quite unlikely. In seeking bids for engines, Comac did not ask for Chinese industrial participation.

* * *

"Bombardier has proposed wide cooperation with Comac. Yet program officials say that the talks remain focused on seemingly less urgent issues, such as joint purchasing of materials.