China rallies aviation brainpower to get widebody C929 off the ground, amp up Airbus and Boeing competition
- Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China held a conference ahead of a week-long seminar to seek progress with its home-grown C929 widebody passenger jet
- C929 is due to rival the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 models for long-haul routes, but analysts expect a ‘minimal impact’ outside China
China’s state-owned aircraft manufacturer this week rallied 280 “experts and scholars” from various industries to seek breakthroughs in building its C929 widebody long-haul passenger jet amid intensifying competition with Airbus and Boeing.
The Shanghai-based Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) said through its official WeChat social media account on Wednesday that it had kicked off a conference with talent from 21 universities and seven civil aviation companies, among other organisations, on Monday amid efforts to build its largest civilian aircraft.
Experts in aerodynamics, airframe structures, electrical mechanical systems and propulsion systems would also meet for a week-long seminar, Comac said in the post that had been removed by the end of Wednesday, although the contents were still being circulated on state media.
You really need to have a pickup from the Chinese outbound travel market to get that demand
Chinese fuselage manufacturer Huarui Aerospace Manufacturing, which was selected in 2021 to build the body of the C929, said in February that the first middle section would be delivered by September 2027.
The C929 would have around 280-400 seats, and a range of 12,000km (7,456 miles), according to Comac.
But the C929, due to rival the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 models, would require a stronger domestic outbound travel market and approvals from overseas aviation regulators to progress, said Eric Lin, head of greater China research with UBS in Hong Kong.