China’s Comac Celebrates Certification Of Its Narrow-Body C919 Airliner

Last week, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) received final certification of its C919 narrowbody airliner from the Chinese aviation authority. Comac’s 158- to 168-passenger indigenous aircraft puts China’s airline manufacturing sector in direct competition with Boeing and Airbus’s narrowbody entries, the 737 Max and A320neo, respectively. The road to certification was long and troubled, having started back in 2009. Meanwhile, political friction complicates the market, with many of the C919’s systems coming from Western suppliers.

For example, according to a report in the trade publication Military & Aerospace Electronics, the C919’s avionics were developed by a consortium of GE and China's Aviation Industry Systems (AVIC). Auxiliary power units (APUs) and other technologies come from Honeywell. Parker Aerospace and AVIC jointly developed and provide the fly-by-wire flight control system as well as fuel inerting and hydraulic systems. And Toulouse, France-based Liebherr-Aerospace supplies the landing gear and cabin-air management system for the C919.

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