COMAC C919 - China's first modern airliner

Blitzo

Blitzo

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lcloo said:
I think most important is that C919 may have a greater effect on competition with Airbus and Boeing than Bombardier and Embraer simply due to the size of commercial jet market in China.

The effect could be price cuts/ greater incentives from Boeing and Airbus to airliners which is good for us the air travellers.
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I think it also depends on whether COMAC can or will seek certification for C919 in many countries outside of China... if they don't, then the influence of C919 on A320 and 737 sales and price may be much smaller.

I suppose we will see with time whether C919 is the aircraft to truly challenge the Boeing and Airbus duopoly.
 
I

I wonder

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I actually think that the C919 will perform better than the a320 neo or the 737max because it uses a better Aluminium alloy. Its caled Al-Li and it very lightweight and has been used in rockets. I think the Space Shuttle expendable tank used it and it might be used in the upper stage of various rockets.
It was going to be used in the new Boeing 777 they are designing but they decided against it for some reason.
I have written about it before in this thread in relation to the C919.
I was listening to the live CCTV stream today and they mentioned that 60% of the C919 is Al-Li.
However we don't get told this from Western sources. We usually get told that it will underperform and they will have to lower the price to sell it.
I only picked it up because I was browsing the comac website and spotted the Al Li reference some months ago.
 
Blitzo

Blitzo

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I wonder said:
I actually think that the C919 will perform better than the a320 neo or the 737max because it uses a better Aluminium alloy. Its caled Al-Li and it very lightweight and has been used in rockets. I think the Space Shuttle expendable tank used it and it might be used in the upper stage of various rockets.
It was going to be used in the new Boeing 777 they are designing but they decided against it for some reason.
I have written about it before in this thread in relation to the C919.
I was listening to the live CCTV stream today and they mentioned that 60% of the C919 is Al-Li.
However we don't get told this from Western sources. We usually get told that it will underperform and they will have to lower the price to sell it.
I only picked it up because I was browsing the comac website and spotted the Al Li reference some months ago.
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Having reliable suppliers, effective post sales support, certification, and all manner of other quite complex and long term tasks are quite important too. COMAC is still a new company, remember, and its scale and experience in those tasks are dwarfed by that of Airbus and Boeing.

This isn't to say that it isn't neat that C919 uses a newer type of aluminium alloy, but how well it sells will really be more than just any slight technological advancements one side may have versus the other.
And as said before, if C919 is not certified outside of China, then all the advancements it may have over its competitors may not mean as much. However, C919 will hopefully give COMAC more experience in developing a modern airliner and would assist their efforts in developing a widebody with less delays and smoother progression.
 
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I wonder

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Bltizo said:
And as said before, if C919 is not certified outside of China, then all the advancements it may have over its competitors may not mean as much. However, C919 will hopefully give COMAC more experience in developing a modern airliner and would assist their efforts in developing a widebody with less delays and smoother progression.
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Yes a big unknown is whether it will be certified by the west. There may be political and financial reasons why they don't want to enable their competitor. I know there has been a massive western reaction against the Chinese MA60, even though it has proved itself, with many planes flying and the only fatal accident being due to a pilot losing control in bad weather.
 
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visitant

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Less pieces is indeed more beautiful, it will be cool if any company came up with a one piece window design.

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SamuraiBlue

SamuraiBlue

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Bltizo said:
Having reliable suppliers, effective post sales support, certification, and all manner of other quite complex and long term tasks are quite important too. COMAC is still a new company, remember, and its scale and experience in those tasks are dwarfed by that of Airbus and Boeing.

This isn't to say that it isn't neat that C919 uses a newer type of aluminium alloy, but how well it sells will really be more than just any slight technological advancements one side may have versus the other.
And as said before, if C919 is not certified outside of China, then all the advancements it may have over its competitors may not mean as much. However, C919 will hopefully give COMAC more experience in developing a modern airliner and would assist their efforts in developing a widebody with less delays and smoother progression.
Click to expand...

I am sure it will be given a certification but that is not a big problem compared to the lack of educational and maintenance support this plane will need to get sales abroad getting off the ground.
You may know that all planes have a type licence for a pilot to be qualified to fly the plane. So an airliner require to pay for their education to gain that licence to fly the plane.That becomes a burden especially if there are no simulators in the immediate area.Same with training the mechanics which requires localized repair manuals and online support.
At the end the product is only part of the equation in this industry especially if it's only on par with a product that has all the required infrastructure around the globe.
 
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