China's transport, tanker & heavy lift aircraft

Kyiv, September 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Ukraine and China will
continue discussing long-term cooperation in aircraft-building at the
AviationExpo China 2007 air show to be held in Beijing on September 18-
23, Antonov ANTK Designer General Dmitry Kiva told Interfax-Ukraine.
ANTK is interested in participating in Chinese AVIC-I-initiated
projects, aimed at developing a new Chinese air transport with a payload
capacity of 60 tons of more, as well as a new long-range air liner with
a seating capacity of 150-200 passengers.
"China is serious about cooperation with us. We will hold a new
round of talks at the show. Corresponding documents are being prepared,"
Kiva said.
ANTK and AVIC-I signed a memorandum of understanding on developing
a new Chinese 70-seat regional turboprop last week.
Head of the AVIC-I international sales department Zou Zhanfeng told
Interfax-Ukraine that his company was interested in long-term
cooperation with ANTK in the field of developing new Chinese aircraft.
China is considering several options of involving ANTK in such
development: a joint design of new aircraft, buying ANTK shares give a
corresponding permission of the Ukrainian government, or establishing a
joint venture in Ukraine or China.

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tphuang said:

i'm not sure if this is an old order or a new one, but probably the one that got announced a while back. Nice to see an export of 15 MA-60

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tphuang said:

ANTK and AVIC-I signed a memorandum of understanding on developing
a new Chinese 70-seat regional turboprop last week.

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New Civil Aircraft Plans For Chinese Manufacturers

Sep 5, 2007

By Bradley Perrett/Aviation Daily

Chinese aircraft makers are planning a range of new civil models, even before their current big project, the ARJ21 large regional jet, rolls out at the end of this year.

Avic I, one of the country's two aviation conglomerates, says it is considering a new turboprop transport, a business jet and a new aircraft for general aviation.

AviChina, a listed unit of the other conglomerate, Avic II, says it is considering whether to build a new regional or business jet, possibly an Embraer model to build alongside its current ERJ 145 line, or possibly something completely new.

Avic I says its strategy is to build a family of aircraft, with turboprops filling demand for aircraft up to 70 seats and its ARJ21 up to about 100. It already has an aircraft near the top end of its turboprop range, the 50- to 60-seat MA 60.

"We are doing research and studies for new aircraft, namely a stretched version of the ARJ21 and a new turboprop," Hu Wenming, executive VP of Avic I, told reporters at the Asian Aerospace exhibition in Hong Kong on Monday.

The proposal for a stretched ARJ21, the ARJ21-900, was already known. The other aircraft sound firmer than mere studies: "We will also develop a business jet and a general [aviation] aircraft," Hu says.

AviChina says its cooperation with Embraer is supposed to have three phases, the first two being building ERJ145s for sale in Asia and the production of parts for the aircraft.

The third stage, which the company is now considering, is the development of a new regional jet or business jet. Since this would be part of the company's cooperation with Embraer, another model from that company, such as the E170, would seem likely. But AviChina says a new aircraft is also a possibility -- although it is hard to see how any such development could avoid clashing with the current Embraer product line.

Anything much larger than the ERJ 145 would compete with the ARJ21.

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AVIC II brings in Antonov to help with new Y8F
By Leithen Francis

China Aviation Industry (AVIC) II has delayed the manufacture of its new commercial freighter, the Y8-F600, because it wants Antonov's help to improve the aircraft.

"In the world arena Antonov has a strong capability and we are now meeting with experts at Antonov to evaluate the Y8" on aspects such as the "aerodynamics, structure and relevant systems and have asked for help to make advances, modifications and improvements," says AVIC II president Zhang Hongbiao.

The Y8-F600 is a derivative of the Y8-F400 and the Y8-F100. The original Y8 was derived from the Antonov An-12.

"Our ultimate goal is to have an advanced state-of-the art" aircraft, says Zhang, adding that AVIC II prefers to "be a little bit slow" if it means the company ends up with the best aircraft.

AVIC II subsidiary Shaanxi Aircraft makes the Y-8F600 and Shaanxi's VP Liu Bin told Flight International last November that the company planned to roll-out the aircraft and complete flight testing in time to have it certificated in China by the end of 2007.

However, Zhang declines to give the new time-frame for roll-out saying it depends on the outcome of the current evaluation. "If we can be successful with the Y8" it will last 30 to 50 years and there will be an opportunity to sell it in overseas markets such as Africa and South America, he says.

The Y8-F600 differs from the Y8-F400 in having a modern two-pilot cockpit against the Y8-F400's three-crew cockpit. The Y8-F400 was powered by the indigenous WJ6 engines whereas the new version will have Pratt & Whitney Canada PW150Bs "but in the meantime we are developing our own turboprop engine...design of the core engine is almost complete", Zhang says.

When asked why AVIC II wants to develop its own engine for the Y8, Zhang says for a nation to develop its aviation manufacturing industry without developing its engine capabilities "is not a complete development or perfect solution".

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China Learning How To Develop, Support Airliners With ARJ21

Sep 16, 2007

By Bradley Perrett

It might be the beginnings of a giant of commercial aviation. The ARJ21 regional jet is shaping up as China’s equivalent of the Airbus A300—a project that in its time seemed merely interesting but later was recognized as the origin of a product range that would challenge the established order of civil aircraft makers.

The significance of the project isn’t in the sales potential of the initial version, the ARJ21-700, which is very much a niche aircraft designed for hot and high airports. Even the market potential of the more widely saleable ARJ21-900, the planned stretched version, isn’t really the key point about this project.

Above all, the ARJ21 program is important as the occasion in which Chinese industry is learning to develop a commercial aircraft to full Western standards and with its own intellectual property rights, to coordinate with many subcontractors, to gain certification from the U.S. FAA, to establish an international marketing operation, and—crucially—to prove that it will support aircraft in service.

If in 30 or 40 years China has a powerful industry turning out competitive airliners and freighters, from regional jets to widebodies, observers of the day will probably say “they learned to do it with the ARJ21.”

It won’t matter much if the ARJ21 itself achieves only modest commercial success.

Such a long-term view is typical of Chinese officials in almost any part of the economy as they plan the historic rise of their country. And so is the notion of deliberate, step-by-step learning, each step based on experience from the previous one and yielding more experience for the next.

“Cross the river by feeling the stones,” said former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping.

The ARJ21 project is a line of big stones that will lead Chinese industry far across the river. It follows experience with the MA60 turboprop, in which the ARJ21’s builder—aircraft conglomerate Avic I—improved the basic Antonov An-24 design and worked with a major Western supplier, Pratt & Whitney Canada.

For the ARJ21, the foreign supplier team has grown to include such companies as Honeywell and Parker for flight controls, General Electric for engines and Rockwell Collins for avionics. The design is Avic I’s, although Bombardier will work on the -900. And, unlike the MA60, sales won’t be limited to countries willing to do without Western airworthiness certification.

Getting Western certification is a key challenge for the project and is one of the most valuable lessons that Avic I expects to learn from it.

The first ARJ21-700 prototype is under final assembly at the Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Factory, which is being absorbed by Avic I Commercial Aircraft Corp. (ACAC), a profit-oriented spinoff from Avic I that’s leading the project. The plant is the one that put together Chinese-built McDonnell Douglas MD-80s and MD-90s.

Rollout is scheduled for late this year, with 14 months of flight testing to begin in March. Chinese type certification should follow in July 2009 and first delivery three months later.

Three production aircraft are to be completed in 2009, 14 in 2010 and 30 in 2011. So the backlog of 71 orders, all from Chinese customers, implies that the plant will be busy until late 2011.

Once the -700 is in service, development will begin on the ARJ21-900, which will have more improvements than just a longer fuselage. The Chinese engineers want to reach out to feel a few more stones.

“The ARJ21-900 will serve the international market,” says ACAC Vice President Chen Jin, describing the -700 as tailored for domestic needs.

Designed especially to serve China’s hot and high western districts, the ARJ21-700 is naturally heavy for its seating capacity of 78 in two classes or 90 with an all-economy cabin. The -900 should be much more attractive for ordinary routes. Preliminary plans show empty weight per seat falling 15% in the stretched version, which is to seat 98 in two classes or 105 all-economy.

But the big challenge in the ARJ21 isn’t the engineering, even if commercial aircraft development is never easy.

Wang Yawei, head of Avic I’s civil aircraft department, points out that a complete civil aircraft industry has three main systems: marketing, customer service, and development and production.

“But in the past the Chinese aviation industry had only one of the three, the development and production system,” he says.

For example, China’s aviation marketing experience has been almost nil.

“In customer service, the industry could only provide some simple after-sales support, far from satisfying customers’ demands,” he told International Aviation, a Chinese-language partner magazine of Aviation Week & Space Technology.

Avic I is addressing the marketing challenge by handing that responsibility to a specialized company, ACAC.

ACAC also plans to float its shares in China and on a foreign stock exchange, possibly New York—which is another side of the modernization of the Chinese aircraft industry.

Another listed Avic I company, Xi’an Aircraft International, will be heavily involved in making ARJ21 components and major assemblies, partly through joint ventures with Avic I units in Chengdu and Shenyang.

Avic I is strongly emphasizing service. Even before the aircraft flies, a customer support center has been built in Shanghai and is due to begin training operators by year-end.

“Clearly, with the ARJ program the Chinese are taking a large step forward,” says Boeing’s vice president for China, John Bruns, adding a warning heard before from his company: “It would be naive of us to think that our two companies [Airbus and Boeing] are going to dominate this industry forever.”

China will have a special problem in breaking into the duopoly, however. An executive from one U.S. company in the program says reports of bad Chinese consumer goods will deter big foreign airlines from the ARJ21—not because they will think there’s anything wrong with it, but because many passengers won’t want to hear that they’re flying on a Chinese aircraft.

“They will think that, if the Chinese can’t be trusted to make toys, how can they be trusted to make aircraft?” says that executive, who notes that China actually makes high-quality aircraft parts.

“Airlines like British Airways and Qan*tas won’t be buying the ARJ21.”

At least not yet. But they might have a few decades in which to change their minds, since the program is only just beginning and the aircraft has obvious potential for development.

The ARJ21-700’s weight, seating and range are similar to those of regional jets from Embraer, Bombardier and, coming up soon, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (see table, p. 77). But it’s also remarkably comparable with the DC-9-10, whose configuration it shares and which was repeatedly stretched until it offered two-class seating for 152.

And whereas those competitors have chosen four-abreast seating, minimizing drag, Avic I has gone for the DC‑9’s five-abreast. Sukhoi has made the same choice for its Superjet 100, and so has Bombardier for its 110- and 130-seat CSeries proposal, calculating that such fuselages are more efficient than six-abreast up to about 150 seats.

ACAC’s Chen is emphatic that there’s no current plan to stretch the ARJ21 beyond the -900, although he says doing so would offer no technical problem. Instead, he’s planning freight and private versions of the -700. The company has enough on its plate.

But, clearly, once the -900 is developed in the next decade, the manufacturer will be able to cheaply stretch the aircraft again, especially since it’s already talking about enlarging the wing (see following story). Importantly, the rear-engine layout should present no obstacle to installing bigger powerplants.

Moreover, the likelihood of an eventual 150-seat ARJ21 derivative has risen over the past year as China has firmed up plans for its second commercial aircraft. Rather than follow up its regional jet with an aircraft in the next standard size category— a standard six-abreast narrowbody—the government has approved what state media are calling a jumbo with more than 150 seats and a takeoff weight of more than 100 metric tons.

That should be a small widebody—the next line of stones across the river.

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