COMAC C929 Widebody Airliner

This is what I have heard of CR929 program. Before 2020, China agreed to build CR929 for Chinese market, while Russia has the rest of the world which is big. However, the sanction since 2020 means that Russian airlines CR929 can not fly over EU and US, also UAC can not maintain and service any Russian made CR929 in EU and US even though the aircraft belongs to a third country (for example Kazakhstan) because no Russian made components can be imported to EU and US. This severely reduced the desire of buying CR929 from UAC. Therefor, the promised Russian share of the market shrunk drastically. Most possible orders will be turned to China, even Russian designed/produced components have to go through China somehow to bypass sanctions.

Russia may have asked China to revise the agreement (hence the romours), that is China to give Russia a large chunk of Chinese market, while China takes over the "rest of world" share. However, China is reluctant because China's market is garanteed, but outside isn't especially routes ending in EU and US who will resist letting in CR929 even without any sanctions. So there is not much interest left for UAC to stay as partner.

So I think the Russian dropping out is caused by Western sanctions, but it isn't because China cares much about western countries feeling , demand and threat as many people suggest. China only cares about her own aviation industry being self-reliance and successful.

taxiya said:

......
So I think the Russian dropping out is caused by Western sanctions, but it isn't because China cares much about western countries feeling , demand and threat as many people suggest. China only cares about her own aviation industry being self-reliance and successful.

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Only with the domestic production of every element of an aircraft can we claim to have a self-sufficient aeronautical industry,
They should foresee this from the beginning for the C929 project and in the meantime begin to foresee the replacement of foreign parts with others made at home also for the commercial aircraft currently in production by creating specific versions.

sahureka said:

Only with the domestic production of every element of an aircraft can we claim to have a self-sufficient aeronautical industry,
They should foresee this from the beginning for the C929 project and in the meantime begin to foresee the replacement of foreign parts with others made at home also for the commercial aircraft currently in production by creating specific versions.

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They did see the possibility of sanction, in 2011 (12 years ago) CJ-2000 engine model was already on display in air shows. engine is the most critical component but it takes decade(s) to develop. Other parts like black box, avionic gauges/display etc can easily be replaced with domestic ones.

Using foreign components when your production volume is low saves dvelopment/certification costs and unit costs, but plan B is always there if sanction hits.

on September 10, at the plenary session of 2023 Pujiang Innovation Forum ..

He Dongfeng, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the COMAC said, After 15 years of innovative development, the product lineage of ARJ21 regional airliner, C919 medium and short-range narrow-body airliner and C929 long-range wide-body airliner has been initially formed. C929 is the first intercontinental jet airliner. The C929 is planned to provide 250 to 350 seats from the shortened type to the extended type. The range will reach 12,000 kilometers. Through these three aircraft, a basic product pedigree has been formed. Two aircraft have entered the market, and one aircraft is already under development.

This is first time, COMAC mentioned C929 in public. take this statement as official one. Russia is no longer the part of this project.

sunnymaxi said:

on September 10, at the plenary session of 2023 Pujiang Innovation Forum ..

He Dongfeng, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the COMAC said, After 15 years of innovative development, the product lineage of ARJ21 regional airliner, C919 medium and short-range narrow-body airliner and C929 long-range wide-body airliner has been initially formed. C929 is the first intercontinental jet airliner. The C929 is planned to provide 250 to 350 seats from the shortened type to the extended type. The range will reach 12,000 kilometers. Through these three aircraft, a basic product pedigree has been formed. Two aircraft have entered the market, and one aircraft is already under development.

This is first time, COMAC mentioned C929 in public. take this statement as official one. Russia is no longer the part of this project.

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In

sunnymaxi said:

on September 10, at the plenary session of 2023 Pujiang Innovation Forum ..

He Dongfeng, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the COMAC said, After 15 years of innovative development, the product lineage of ARJ21 regional airliner, C919 medium and short-range narrow-body airliner and C929 long-range wide-body airliner has been initially formed. C929 is the first intercontinental jet airliner. The C929 is planned to provide 250 to 350 seats from the shortened type to the extended type. The range will reach 12,000 kilometers. Through these three aircraft, a basic product pedigree has been formed. Two aircraft have entered the market, and one aircraft is already under development.

This is first time, COMAC mentioned C929 in public. take this statement as official one. Russia is no longer the part of this project.

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So, just for a very, very rough sum-up - COMAC currently has:
1. Embraer E175-E2-equivalent (ARJ21-700);
2. Embraer E190-E3-equivalent (ARJ21-900);
3. Airbus A220-equivalent (C919-short);
4. Airbus A230neo-equivalent (C919-medium);
5. Airbus A321neo-equivalent (C919-stretch);
6. Airbus A330-900-equivalent (C929-short);
7. Airbus A350-900-equivalent (C929-medium); and
8. Airbus A350-1000-equivalent (C929-stretch) -
In service, under development or planned.

Do I get the list close enough?

In the meantime, I'm not sure if COMAC would like to develop a Boeing 777X-equivalent, though...

ACuriousPLAFan said:

So, just for a very, very rough sum-up - COMAC currently has:
1. Embraer E175-E2-equivalent (ARJ21-700);
2. Embraer E190-E3-equivalent (ARJ21-900);
3. Airbus A220-equivalent (C919-short);
4. Airbus A230neo-equivalent (C919-medium);
5. Airbus A321neo-equivalent (C919-stretch);
6. Airbus A330-900-equivalent (C929-short);
7. Airbus A350-900-equivalent (C929-medium); and
8. Airbus A350-1000-equivalent (C929-stretch) -
In service, under development or planned.

Do I get the list close enough?

In the meantime, I'm not sure if COMAC would like to develop a Boeing 777X-equivalent, though...

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It is more prudent to remove the "planned" ones because plans can easily change.

At present there is ARJ21-700, and C919 in service, and one variant of C929 that we can say with decent confidence is likely to see the light of day.

There are additional variants of C919 being considered, and there are additional variants of C929 being considered. I don't know what is going on with ARJ21-900, if it is still being pursued.

I.e.: significantly shorten your list, because there's a good chance multiple of the variants either will be cancelled or not be pursued from where we stand.

At this point... the chassis needs to get up in the air and certified....
all the improvements, new wings, new engines, lightened improvements, aeronautics... they call all be improved in conjunction with pricepoint and improved manufacturing processes/pipelines.

ACuriousPLAFan said:

So, just for a very, very rough sum-up - COMAC currently has:
1. Embraer E175-E2-equivalent (ARJ21-700);
2. Embraer E190-E3-equivalent (ARJ21-900);
3. Airbus A220-equivalent (C919-short);
4. Airbus A230neo-equivalent (C919-medium);
5. Airbus A321neo-equivalent (C919-stretch);
6. Airbus A330-900-equivalent (C929-short);
7. Airbus A350-900-equivalent (C929-medium); and
8. Airbus A350-1000-equivalent (C929-stretch) -
In service, under development or planned.

Do I get the list close enough?

In the meantime, I'm not sure if COMAC would like to develop a Boeing 777X-equivalent, though...

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Sorry in case I will ruin the party, but these are lists are lists for the moment and nothing more and given the fact that even for the already flying types in the end only two remain, namely only no. 1. & 4. and all the remaining ones are not yet even initiated developments of existing types or plain future projects, I won‘t overhype this „long“ list.

I am glad Russia is out of this Project. China is technologically advanced enough to build its own widebody plane. Plus with a huge market of 1.4 billion, Why should they rely on a Technology zombie like Russia for anything?

I think they only did this deal to appease Russians and make them feel like an equal ally to China.

Now China has the convinent excuse of the sanctions to finally get rid of them.

C929 is the way to go. The only thing Russia will be good for in the future is to buy every kind of manufactured goods from China while China buys all the food and oil.