中國認證 C919 噴氣式飛機去與空中巴士和波音競爭

Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:

China certifies C919 jet to compete with Airbus and Boeing

Fri, September 30, 2022 at 8:08 AM

By Sophie Yu and Stella Qiu

BEIJING/SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - China held a ceremony on Thursday to certify its C919 narrowbody passenger jet, photos on social media showed, representing a major milestone in the country's ambitions to challenge Airbus and Boeing in commercial aerospace.

The plane, produced by state-owned manufacturer Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (COMAC), had been widely expected to be certified by the end of the month after two aircraft flew to Beijing on Sept. 13. A sign in one of the photos said "C919 aircraft type certificate issuance ceremony" in Chinese.

COMAC did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

The C919, launched 14 years ago and designed to carry up to 168 passengers, will compete against the popular Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 MAX families in the world's second-biggest aviation market as China looks to boost its technological self-reliance amid trade tensions.

Although the plane is assembled in China, it relies heavily on Western components, including engines and avionics, from companies including GE, Safran and Honeywell International.

Tough U.S. export licensing rules have led to delays in sourcing parts and remain a key risk to ramped up production until China replaces foreign engines and components with homegrown technology.

Richard Aboulafia, U.S.-based managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory, said the plane seems like a relic of a bygone era of increasing integration between China and the West.

"Thus, we have an aircraft that is only superficially Chinese but is actually powered by Western technologies and systems," he said. "Turning it into a genuine Chinese aircraft would take well over a decade and many billions of dollars."

The type of certificate granted on Thursday means it can be delivered to the first customer, China Eastern Airlines Corp Ltd , though local media have reported the plane is unlikely to enter commercial service with passengers until next year.

The C919 has never made an appearance at the country's premier aviation event, Airshow China and it is unclear whether it will be on display or flown at the show in November.

COMAC will also need a separate production certificate before it can ramp up mass production of the plane, meaning its impact on the global aircraft market could remain limited given Airbus and Boeing produce dozens of narrowbodies a month.

"The C919 will gradually begin to replace single-aisle aircraft made by Boeing and Airbus," in China, a research note by Huaxi Securities said this month. "In the next 20 years, China's demand for narrowbody passenger aircraft like the C919 will be on average 300 per year."

The C919's regional jet predecessor, the ARJ21, faced a 2.5-year gap between obtaining the type certificate and the production certificate, slowing production. That contrasts with the West, where both certificates are typically granted around the same time.

FOREIGN CERTIFICATION

Like the ARJ21, the C919 lacks certification validation by U.S. and European regulators, limiting flights to the domestic market and possibly countries with close ties to China.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has been working for years on a certification validation process on the C919 with COMAC in parallel to CAAC's work, an EASA spokesperson said.

"We cannot comment on the date when this validation would be completed," the spokesperson said.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration did not respond to a request for comment on a potential C919 certification validation.

There have been 815 orders for the C919 from 28 customers, according to COMAC's website. But China Eastern is the only customer that has announced a firm delivery schedule and it expects to receive only four next year.

In the meantime, the Boeing 737 MAX has yet to return to commercial service in China, having been grounded since March 2019 after two fatal crashes.

However, three months ago major Chinese airlines placed an order for nearly 300 Airbus A320neo family planes, showing the country plans to continue imports for some time.

Aboulafia said if China did decide to halt Western aircraft imports, the United States and allied countries could kill the C919 for years by prohibiting component exports.

"Try building an aircraft without an engine, or avionics," he said. "It would just be a metal shell."

(Reporting by Sophie Yu in Beijing and Stella Qiu and Jamie Freed in Sydney Additional reporting by David Shepardson in Washington Editing by David Goodman, Gerry Doyle and Frances Kerry)

Translation

北京/悉尼，9 月 29 日（路透社）- 社交媒體上的照片顯示，中國周四舉行了 C919 窄體客機認證儀式，這是該國在商業航空領域挑戰空中巴士和波音公司的雄心的一個重要里程碑。

兩架這種由國有製造商中國商用飛機公司 (COMAC) 生產的飛機在 9 月 13 日飛往北京後，外界普遍預計該飛機將在本月底獲得認證。其中一張照片上的中文標誌說《C919機型合格證頒發儀式》。

COMAC沒有立即回應置評請求。

C919 於 14 年前推出，設計最多可搭載 168 名乘客，將在全球第二大航空市場與廣受歡迎的空中客車 A320neo 和波音 737 MAX 系列競爭，因為中國希望在貿易緊張局勢中提高技術自力更生。

儘管這架飛機是在中國組裝的，但它嚴重依賴西方零部件, 包括通用電氣、Safran和Honeywell International等公司的發動機和航空電子設備。

美國嚴格的出口許可規定導致零部件採購延遲，在中國用本土技術取代外國發動機和零部件之前，這仍然是提高產量的主要風險。

AeroDynamic Advisory 駐美國董事總經理Richard Aboulafia 表示，這架飛機似乎是中國與西方日益融合的過往時代的遺物。

他說: “因此，我們見到的飛機表面上是中國的，但實際上是由西方技術和系統提供動力的”; “把它變成一架真正的中國飛機需要十多年和數十億美元。”

週四頒發的證書類型,意味著它可以交付給第一個客戶: 中國東方航空公司，儘管當地媒體報導稱，這架飛機不太可能在明年之前投入商業服務。

C919 從未在中國頂級的航空盛會,中國航展上亮相，目前尚不清楚它是否會在 11 月的航展上展出或試飛。

COMAC還需要一份單獨的生產證書，然後才能加快飛機的大規模生產，鑑於空客和波音每月生產數十架窄體飛機，這意味著它對全球飛機市場的影響可能仍然有限。

Huaxi Securities 本月的一份研究報告稱，在中國， “C919 將逐漸開始取代波音和空客製造的單通道飛機”; “未來20年，中國對C919等窄體客機的需求量平均為每年300架。”

C919區域性飛機的前身ARJ21在獲得型號合格證和生產合格證之間存在2.5年的差距，放緩了生產速度。這與西方形成鮮明對比，西方通常同時授予這兩種證書。

國外認證

與 ARJ21 一樣，C919 缺乏美國和歐洲監管機構的認證驗證，限制了國內市場以及可能與中國關係密切的國家的航班。

歐盟航空安全局 (EASA) 發言人表示，多年來 EASA 一直在與COMAC共同開展 C919 的認證驗證過程，與CAAC 的工作同時開展。

發言人說： “我們無法就驗證完成的日期發表評論。”

美國聯邦航空管理局沒有回應對 C919 認證驗證可能性發表評論的請求。

根據COMAC的網站，已有 28 家客戶訂購了 815 架 C919。但東航是唯一宣布確定交貨時間表的客戶，並預計明年只會收到四架。

與此同時，波音 737 MAX 尚未在中國恢復商業服務，自 2019 年 3 月以來,因兩起致命墜機事故而停飛。

然而，三個月前，中國主要航空公司訂購了近 300 架空中巴士 A320neo 系列飛機，這表明該國計劃在一段時間內繼續進口。

Aboulafia說，如果中國確實決定停止進口西方飛機，美國和盟國可能會通過禁止零部件出口來扼殺 C919 多年。

他說: “試著製造一架沒有發動機或航空電子設備的飛機”; “它只是一個金屬外殼。”

              So, while China certifies its C919 narrowbody passenger jet represents a major milestone in the country's ambitions to challenge Airbus and Boeing, building an aircraft without an engine, or avionics would just be a metal shell. China has yet to spend more time and money in order to have a narrowbody passenger jet plane totally "made in China".