ARJ21 (and Thus C919) Face More Delays

choi

(1) Bradley Perrett, Extended Exercise; Comac ARJ21 service is pushed into next year, compromising the C919. Aviation Week, May 7, 2012.

Quote:

(a) "When Chinese engineers began full-scale development of the ARJ21 regional jet in 2002, they must have doubted that they would meet the remarkably tight schedule to deliver the first unit in 2006. But it is unlikely that they imagined they would still be developing the aircraft 11 years later.

"Early this year, the schedule was already being stretched to 10 years, and now it has been extended again, raising new questions over the impact on the timetable of the much more important C919 airliner. Manufacturer Comac has set June 2013 as its new target for achieving ARJ21 certification, slipping from September or October this year.

"The latest delay has resulted from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), advised by the US FAA, expanding ARJ21 flight-testing to almost 1,000 hr, says a senior program manager. Comac had hoped 200 hr of flight tests by the certification agency would be enough, but the agencies have increased the number of hours because they do not want to rely on data accumulated by the inexperienced manufacturer before it handed the aircraft over to them.

(b) "The FAA has insisted that the ARJ21 exercise be finished before the CAAC moves on to independently work on certification of the next aircraft--but the C919 is already at a stage at which the airworthiness authority would usually become involved.

(c) "The first ARJ21 prototype flew in 2008, but the regional jet has made slow progress since then, when the C919 was also launched.

(d) Some of those working on the ARJ21 feel that Comac now regards the program's main objective as certification. If only a token number are built, just to save face, suppliers will book losses. The biggest supplier is probably structure builder Avic, which partly owns Comac but does not control it.

My comment: There is no need to read the rest.

(2) Wreckage found of the Russian-made regional jet Sukhoi SuperJet 100 that crashed yesterday--around 5,800 feet up Mount Salak in West Java, Indonesia. "No signs of survivors among the 45 people onboard."

(3) Doug Cameron, Mitsubishi Delays New Regional Jet Until 2015. Dow Jones Newswires, Apr 25, 2012
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120425-715286.html
("Japan's Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. said Wednesday that its new regional jet would be more than a year late, with first delivery no earlier than the second half of 2015. Mitsubishi is trying to break the near-duopoly in the regional jet market held by Brazil's Embraer SA and Bombardier Inc of Canada, but faces rival new offerings from state-backed manufacturers in Russia and China")