China's transport, tanker & heavy lift aircraft

BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - China Aviation Industry Corp I (AVIC I), the country's
biggest aircraft maker, said it will build the assembly plants for its ARJ21
series planes this year and test fly them in March 2008, a senior company
official said.
Hu Wenming, vice-president of AVIC I, also told a conference that the
company expects to start handing over the aircraft to customers from the third
quarter of 2009, and its production capacity will be boosted to 30 planes in
2011.
Hu said that AVIC I has already received orders for 71 of its ARJ21 model.
"Our production cost per seat is 10 pct lower than our competitors," Hu
added.

Click to expand...

BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - Shaanxi Aircraft Industry (Group) Co Ltd, a unit of the
China Aviation Industry Corp II (AVIC II), has signed a framework agreement with
Ukraine's state-owned aircraft manufacturer Antonov to form an engineering joint
venture in Beijing.
The venture, which will be responsible for research and development of new
air freighters, is scheduled to begin operations by the end of this year, said
Shaanxi Aircraft at a media briefing.
No financial details were provided.
AVIC II, one of China's two largest state-owned aircraft manufacturers,
produces planes for both military and civil use.

Click to expand...

Shaanxi Aircraft Industry (Group) Co and Ukraine-based Antonov agreed yesterday
to design a freighter version of China-developed large aircraft, a senior
company official said yesterday.

Shaanxi Aircraft, a subsidiary of China Aviation Industry Corporation II (AVIC
II), and Antonov signed a framework agreement yesterday to set up a center in
Beijing for the purpose by the end of this year.

"Part of the center's onus will be to design the freighter version of China's
own large plane, which was listed as a priority project in the 11th Five-Year
Plan (2006-10)," AVIC II Vice-President Liang Zhenhe said.

Shaanxi Aircraft will hold the controlling share in the joint venture, with the
initial investment being about 10 million yuan (US$1.29 million), said Ouyang
Shaoxiu, vice-president of the company based in Northwest China's Shaanxi
Province.

The center will need about 50 aircraft designers and engineers, with about half
of the team coming from Shaanxi Aircraft's headquarters in Hanzhong, a city
south of the capital Xi'an.

China plans to make large aircraft by 2020. Designing the aircraft will start
during the 11th Five-Year Plan. Usually, large aircraft have a payload capacity
of at least 100 tons, or about 200 seats for the passenger version.

The engineering center will also design light- and medium-sized transport
aircraft and improve the existing Y-8, or Yun-8, turboprop transport plane,
Liang said.

Shaanxi Aircraft specializes in designing and manufacturing transport aircraft
both for military and civilian purposes. It has made more than 100 Y-8 aircraft
in the past 40 years.

Antonov Aeronautical Scientific-Technical Complex (Antonov) is an aircraft
manufacturing and services company specializing in transport planes and has
made more than 20,000 of them, which are used in more than 40 countries.

Antonov started cooperation with China 50 years ago, giving a license to China
to make its AN-2 single-engine biplanes, which are called Y-5 in China.

"The establishment of the engineering center is a strategic step for AVIC II
toward expediting the development of civilian aircraft," said Liang. AVIC II
agreed to the joint venture because of the air cargo industry's huge potential.

AVIC II has set up an aircraft engineering center with Airbus and AVIC I.
Seventy percent of the joint venture, which will design up to 5 percent of the
A350 airframe, is held by Airbus, with AVIC II and AVIC I holding 25 percent
and 5 percent.

AVIC I and AVIC II both are State-owned aviation giants. AVIC II is the only
entity making military and commercial helicopters in China.(China Daily)

Click to expand...

New firm to focus on large planes
By Xin Dingding (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-20 09:31

A new company will be set up to take charge of the country's large commercial plane project, insiders have said.

The new company is likely to be named after the current two major manufacturers - China Aviation Industry Corp I (AVIC I) and AVIC II - to become AVIC III, said a source who did not want to be named.

The plan is the latest sign that the country is forging ahead with its ambitious plan to design and manufacture a homegrown jumbo jet.

Related readings:

AVIC II, Antonov to design aircraft

Boeing: Air travel in China to soar fivefold by 2026

China to remain world's largest jet engine buyer
The State Council, the Cabinet, approved the project in February, and insiders told China Daily the next month that the aircraft is expected to take off by 2020.

The source said the chief of the new company has been chosen, but declined to reveal the name. The source only said the person has worked with AVIC I and the State Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND).

Both the COSTIND and the National Development and Reform Commission declined to comment yesterday.

But on Sunday, Sun Laiyan, deputy director of the COSTIND, said in an online interview at

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

that a detailed plan to implement the project would be "announced soon".

Earlier, Fu Shula, the CEO of China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Company, said the project will be based on international collaboration - as is common globally - and the nation will look for risk-sharing partners worldwide.

In China, large planes refer to aircraft with more than 150 seats; and currently, only the United States, Europe and Russia are capable of manufacturing them.

The country's indigenously-developed regional jet - with fewer than 100 seats - called ARJ21, is in final assembly stage.

Click to expand...

SHANGHAI, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- China's first independently developed commercial regional jet, the ARJ-21, may be ordered for the first time by a foreign company in the near future, an official with AVIC I Commercial Aircraft company said on Thursday.

The company signed a memorandum of understanding with Lao Airlines on July 2 in which Lao Airlines agreed to buy two jets, the official said. Both parties are working on details of the deal.

Seventy-one jets have been ordered by domestic companies so far this year and another nine were expected for the remaining months of this year, the official added.

The maiden flight of ARJ-21, which is short for "advanced regional jet for the 21st century", is scheduled for March 2008 and mass production will begin in 2009.

AVIC I Commercial Aircraft company is soliciting names from the public for ARJ-21. It will stop accepting submissions on Sept. 28,and the name, which will have two to four Chinese characters, will be finalized and released at the end of December.

Chinese experts said the ARJ-21 has given China a late but powerful presence in its own commercial aviation market, which until now has been dominated by foreign aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus.

Click to expand...

Shaanxi Aircraft and Antonov are establishing a Beijing engineering centre to work on the Shaanxi Y8-F600 and an updated version of the Y-5 transport aircraft as well as a new 30t and 60t cargo aircraft.

The Shaanxi-made Y8-F600 is a medium-sized freighter derivative of the Antonov An-12 and the Y-5, made by Shijiazhuang Aircraft Industries, is a derivative of the Antonov An-2.

Liang Zhenhe, a vice-president Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC) II, the parent company of both Shaanxi and Shijiazhuang, says the first Y8-F600 was scheduled to be built in time for first flight this year, but the schedule has been delayed by 12 months to make improvements and modifications to the design with the help of Antonov.

Liang says AVIC II, with the help of the new engineering centre in Beijing, also plans to develop two new cargo aircraft.

One will be a standard freighter with a take-off weight of 30t and the other will be a four-engine freighter that can land and take off from land and water and has a take-off weight of 60t, he says.

Liang says following last month's fires in Greece, China's government decided to develop the 60t freighter for firefighting missions.

He also says the new engineering centre in Beijing will be helping AVIC II in its bid to get a share of the work on China's new large commercial passenger aircraft programme.

China's State Council decided in February that the country will make large commercial aircraft seating at least 150 passengers and that AVIC I and II will each work on the programme.

The government has yet to decide what AVIC I and II will be doing, but Liang confirms AVIC II has had discussions with Russian engine maker NPO Saturn about developing a powerplant for the large commercial aircraft.

But he adds these discussions are only preliminary and he says AVIC II has also spoken to Western aircraft engine manufacturers.

Click to expand...

Shaanxi Aircraft has again delayed the roll-out of its Y-9 medium transport as a result of ongoing design changes, but expects to deliver its first production example to the Chinese military in 2009, says company vice-president Liu Bin.

"We have slowed down the development speed of this aircraft to redesign a lot of new things," said Liu during the 19-22 September Aviation Expo in Beijing. Improved avionics and an "integrated display panel" are among the new technologies being incorporated with the Y-9, he said, adding: "we want to make sure the aircraft is perfect."

Shaanxi originally planned to fly the Y-9 - a stretched development of its Y-8F commercial freighter - in 2006, but late last year extended its development schedule into 2007 due to what it described as "small changes" to the aircraft's design (Flight International, 14-20 November 2006).

Liu said the Y-9's first flight is now set to take place during 2008, and revealed that Beijing has already agreed to order the type for delivery from 2009. He declined to reveal how many of the aircraft will be acquired, however, noting that negotiations are continuing.

To be powered by four Chinese-built Wojiang FWJ-6C engines driving six-bladed JL-4 composite propellers, the tail ramp-equipped Y-9 will be capable of carrying a 20t cargo, including land vehicles and other equipment. The transport can also be configured with 106 troop seats, 72 stretchers or to deploy paratroopers, says Shaanxi.

Click to expand...

tphuang said:

I guess this will eternally be the civilian airliner thread.

the biggest deal for ma-60 so far - 55. I'm extremely surprised.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

looks like it's not dead after all

Click to expand...