Comac Trunkliner To Fly In 2016, Named C919
Bradley Perrett/Beijing perrett@aviationweek.com 
China's forthcoming trunkliner will fly in about eight years, says manufacturer Comac, suggesting that the project has brought forward its service-entry goal of 2020.
The company has completed the preliminary design and feasibility study for the aircraft, which will be called the C919, says chief designer Wu Guanghui.
Comac says it is looking for foreign suppliers, including engine makers, and will choose those contractors at an early stage in the development.
The confirmation that the C919 will use foreign engines means that Aviation Engine Industry Corp., a subsidiary of Avic, will not power the aircraft, at least not in it early versions. That proposal from the Chinese engine always looked ambitious.
The aircraft is planned to seat 130 to 200 passengers. Comac is a Shanghai-based spin-off of Avic, which is now only a minority shareholder in the business.
Comac has previously said it would begin building the C919 in 2014, presumably meaning the prototypes. If the first of them flies in 2017, as Wu says, and Comac allows one or two years for flight testing, then the C919 would enter service in 2018 or 2019. That hasn't been specified, however, and earlier references to a 2020 entry into service were always vague.
Development will be very slow by western standards, reflecting Comac's great challenge in taking on Airbus and Boeing. The project can be counted as having been launched in May 2008, when Comac was established for the express purpose of developing, building, selling and supporting the aircraft. Development is therefore projected to last 10 or 11 years, compared with the six years now expected for the Boeing 787.
"Given what we know about the resources they have, I would have to say that it is a very ambitious schedule," says one western industry executive with experience in working with Chinese aerospace companies. "Could they make a first flight eight years from now? Maybe."
The Comac ARJ21 regional jet will have been in development for eight years if it meets its delayed target of entering service next year.
Critically, Comac has not yet achieved U.S. Federal Aviation Administration certification of the ARJ21, an aircraft that is serving as the industry's dress rehearsal for breaking into the mainliner market. Comac certainly needs to know how to get western certification for the C919.
It is more than possible that Comac will pitch the first version of the C919 at the domestic market, just as the first version of the ARJ21, the ARJ-700, is regarded as a product for Chinese airlines.
