COMAC C919

[jobjed]

Any info on why after the maiden flight in June no additional flights were done ?

The C919 had its maiden flight in May.

In addition to @Quickie's post, I also theorise that:

We can deduce from this that the long hiatus in test flights was due to the need for modifications to allow the C919 to fly to a faraway testing location.

 

[Deino]

Pardon, indeed it flew first in May, but IMO work on a runway and to want not to interfere the regular ops at the other one cannot really be a reason for NOT a single flight since May???

 

[texx1]

Pardon, indeed it flew first in May, but IMO work on a runway and to want not to interfere the regular ops at the other one cannot really be a reason for NOT a single flight since May???

It's an unlikely reason. However it is quite possible since Pudong is an extremely busy airport. I fly in and out Pudong several times a year for business. Time planes spend waiting for takeoff have gotten much longer over the years. Just last month, my flight departing Pudong waited on taxiway for almost 2 hours for its turn to take off.

 

[MwRYum]

Finally some news ...

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Looks like another flight ??

No, it was a taxiing trial, not flight test.

 

[schrage musik]

I think that the long hiatus between maiden flight and the start of flight testing strongly indicates that COMAC did some major wizardry with the first prototype to achieve its maiden flight target. I'll make a guess and say that the C919 that flew in May was missing a lot of subsystems without which it wouldn't make much sense to begin flight testing. That's why they have taken four months before the plane is ready for flight testing. In my opinion, this is a far more likely reason for the long delay. The MC-21, it seems, was more fully fitted out when it first flew so flight testing began much earlier.

 

[Figaro]

C919 jumbo jet expected to be powered by homemade engine: expert
By Liu Caiyu Source:Global Times Published: 2017/9/10 23:28:39
China's domestically developed jumbo jet C919 is expected to be equipped with homemade engines that feature light metal material, a Chinese expert said on Saturday.

Domestically made Changjiang-1000 engine (CJ-1000) that may be used to power the C919 is under development and will replace imported foreign engines in future on the jet, according to Cao Chunxiao, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a researcher with Aero Engine Corporation of China Beijing Institute of Aeronautical Materials, said on Saturday.

Nearly 23 percent of the CJ-1000 engine will probably be titanium alloy, which has higher density than iron and will help reduce the weight of the jet, Cao said during the 2017 China's Top 500 Enterprises Summit Forum on Saturday in Jiangxi, thepaper.cn reported.

The C919 made a successful maiden flight on May 5 this year. It was powered by LEAP-1C engine developed by CFM International, a 50-50 joint venture between France's Safran Aircraft Engines and GE of the US.

"It's quite competitive to have 23 percent titanium alloy on the CJ-1000. The mainstream civil engines in the world contain similar quantity of light materials," Wang Yanan, chief editor of the Aerospace Knowledge magazine, told the Global Times on Sunday.

The homemade engine is expected to make breakthroughs in its main parts - turbine, fan and blades, Wang added.

"The first CJ-1000 engine is expected to be completed by the end of 2017 and a series of intensive tests are planned when it is mounted on an airplane," Feng Jinzhang, general manager at AECC Commercial Aircraft Engines Co, said at a forum on August 26.

"The CJ-1000 is not just a homemade product. If the CJ -1000 engine is tested successfully and is able to power aircraft, it will mark the evolution of China's aerospace industry from manufacturing mature military products to delivering civil products," Wang said.

"China owns very competitive aircraft engine manufacturing technology but it is mainly used in military," he explained.

Feng said that the C919 with homemade CJ-1000A engine will finish its assembly within this year, and the wide-body passenger jet C929 with the engine CJ-2000 is undergoing testing.

The market of engines for commercial aircraft is promising, which Feng estimated in the next two decades to hit 80,000 worldwide, with the market value reaching $1 trillion.

The CJ-1000 is designed for C919, but is expected to power either Boeing 737 or Airbus 320 or a similar newly built aircraft in the world market by 2025, Wang said.

The engines, as one of high-end products in aviation industry, will then become a pioneer of China's overall manufacturing industry, he added.

 

[schrage musik]

This news if true is a HUGE one. They already have domestic suppliers or options for most of the other onboard systems. If the domestic engine, however inefficient or heavier compared to the Leap 1C, is ready to power the aircraft in the next four years then China will have a fully domestic, militarized version of the aircraft available as a platform for the successors of its AWACS, AEW, SIGINT/EW and MPA aircraft-- the entire KJ & GX family of aircraft will be able to switch to this aircraft to take advantage of the lower operating cost, more efficient fuel burn, longer range, more volume and electric power available compared to the Y-9. The militarized version alone will add a few hundred airframes to the order book for COMAC.

 

[Iron Man]

This news if true is a HUGE one. They already have domestic suppliers or options for most of the other onboard systems. If the domestic engine, however inefficient or heavier compared to the Leap 1C, is ready to power the aircraft in the next four years then China will have a fully domestic, militarized version of the aircraft available as a platform for the successors of its AWACS, AEW, SIGINT/EW and MPA aircraft-- the entire KJ & GX family of aircraft will be able to switch to this aircraft to take advantage of the lower operating cost, more efficient fuel burn, longer range, more volume and electric power available compared to the Y-9. The militarized version alone will add a few hundred airframes to the order book for COMAC.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. They most definitely do NOT have domestic suppliers or options for most of the other onboard systems. They plan to have 80% domestic suppliers by 2025, but even this will not be enough. Only when the aircraft is 100% domestic can they turn the C919 into a military aircraft. You're looking at the 2030-2040 timeframe for a militarized C919.

 

[delft]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. They most definitely do NOT have domestic suppliers or options for most of the other onboard systems. They plan to have 80% domestic suppliers by 2025, but even this will not be enough. Only when the aircraft is 100% domestic can they turn the C919 into a military aircraft. You're looking at the 2030-2040 timeframe for a militarized C919.

It is likely that many, perhaps all, of the missing 20% will not be necessary for a military version so you might be too pessimistic with the 2030-2040 time frame.

 

[Iron Man]

It is likely that many, perhaps all, of the missing 20% will not be necessary for a military version so you might be too pessimistic with the 2030-2040 time frame.

What makes you so certain that this 20% will not have to be domesticated prior to a military version?