Excellent additions
Capex was just the aspect that came to mind as an example, but you guys neatly drive the point home that there are several ways in which the C919 can still be a commercially competitive offering on the international stage
COMAC C919
- Thread starter Deino
- Start date
Capex was just the aspect that came to mind as an example, but you guys neatly drive the point home that there are several ways in which the C919 can still be a commercially competitive offering on the international stage
guys, @HighGround made a great point, delivery slot is a huge consideration for airlines placing orders
Thanks, Since MC21 has composite wings would have been nice to involve Russia from the beginning like C929 or is China developing its own autoclave?
asif iqbal
Lieutenant General
someone give a tally of how many have been delivered ?
At present, only two C919s of China Eastern Airlines have been delivered
Making a prototype plane with composite wings doesn't mean Russia has mastered the technology. Russian need to mass-product the plane and safely operate them for many years if not many decades to prove the worthiness of the technology. Otherwise China could claim that she had already mastered the technologies of making long-range narrow-body airliner in 1970s when the prototype of Y-10 was built. Just like a couple of successful dives of the OceanGate's submersible doesn't prove the safety of its composite hull design.
In fact, it seems like that Russian is unable to deliver the composite wings for CR929 in time this year. I suspect all those claims of China trying to copy/steal Russian technologies are just smokes for covering the failure that Russian just can't complete their tasks(like composite wings) under western sanction. Who would believe Russian could make these components for CR929 meanwhile they even couldn't make them for their MC-21 without imported materials from the West?
You are poorly informed. There are several flying prototypes of the MC-21 with Russian composite wing. And unlike with the Y-10 the MC-21 airframe with Russian composite wing meets the planned weight and strength requirements. The wing passed laboratory tests and flying tests. Right now Russia is busy replacing other imported components in the aircraft, like the electrical wiring, APU, avionics, doors, etc. There are just so many systems which used to be imported to replace, the wings are water long gone under the bridge by now. They are busy converting the existing prototypes to use the new Russian made components so they can resume testing and certify the aircraft by the end of this year. I think that is highly optimistic on their part and would not be surprised if there was another year or two of delays however.
As for the CR929 they already produced the composite wing box as per the plan and delivered it to the test site.
The prototype wing was also manufactured and sent for static strength tests at TsAGI.
I am fairly certain the wings will be delivered if not on time with minimal delay.
There are other airplanes with composite wings in the market like Boeing 787 and Airbus A220. The main difference here is this is the first wing build out of autoclave used in a commercially available aircraft. And the only one of this size.
As for the CR929 they already produced the composite wing box as per the plan and delivered it to the test site.
The prototype wing was also manufactured and sent for static strength tests at TsAGI.
I am fairly certain the wings will be delivered if not on time with minimal delay.
There are other airplanes with composite wings in the market like Boeing 787 and Airbus A220. The main difference here is this is the first wing build out of autoclave used in a commercially available aircraft. And the only one of this size.
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Any advantage with using an Autoclave in wing production?
Thermoset CRP composites are the contemporary material for producing large composite aerostructures, so autoclaves are table stakes. Western research is currently focused on making more use of thermoplastic composites, which don't require an autoclave, going forward