C919, driving the industrial chain to fly together.
On May 28th, the first commercial flight of C919, China Eastern Airlines MU9191, arrived safely at Beijing Capital International Airport, marking the successful completion of the first commercial flight, officially entering the civil aviation market and starting a new journey of market-oriented operation and industrialization development.
Photo by Wei Meng (Xinhua News Agency)
The 12-inch hanging display in C919 cabin supports high-definition 1080P movie screening.
Wang Chushe (People’s Vision)
With the C919 successfully completing its first commercial flight and officially entering the civil aviation market, the vast number of passengers can travel by domestic large aircraft!
It not only takes passengers into the blue sky, but also puts domestic large aircraft into commercial operation, which also has a strong driving effect on the overall development of China’s civil passenger aircraft industry chain, thus promoting the upgrading of domestic aviation industry.
The cause of large aircraft has embarked on a new journey of large-scale and serialized development
Why is the big plane so concerned? C919 large passenger plane is the first jet trunk passenger plane with independent intellectual property rights developed by China in accordance with internationally accepted airworthiness standards. Type certificate was awarded by the Civil Aviation Administration of China after it was established in 2007, made its first flight in 2017 and completed all airworthiness certification in September 2022. C919 is the first truly large civil aviation aircraft in China after Yun -10.
The C919 large passenger plane on this commercial maiden voyage was developed by Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (hereinafter referred to as "China Commercial Aircraft") and delivered to China Eastern Airlines on December 9, 2022. After delivery, it intensively completed 100 hours of verification flight, and comprehensively tested the aircraft’s route operation capability.
"After several generations of efforts, China’s civil aviation transportation market has a jet trunk aircraft independently developed by China for the first time, and the large aircraft industry has entered a new journey of large-scale serialization development." Wei Yingbiao, deputy general manager of Comac China, said.
At 8: 25 on May 29th, China Eastern Airlines flight MU9197, which was carried by C919 passenger plane, took off from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport with 135 passengers and landed smoothly at Chengdu Tianfu International Airport at 11: 05. C919 started normal commercial operation. Many passengers reported that the flight was smooth, the cabin was spacious and the seats were comfortable. The experience of domestic large aircraft was really good!
At present, China Eastern Airlines and China Commercial Aircraft have signed five purchase agreements for large aircraft, and the subsequent introduction plan will be decided according to the actual operation and the company’s aviation network planning. China Eastern Airlines has specially set up the flight department and cabin department of C919, and set up professional departments such as C919 dispatching and releasing seats and domestic aircraft maintenance management center. According to the plan, C919 is located in "Shanghai Hongqiao — The initial commercial operation was carried out on the Chengdu Tianfu route. After the introduction, this model is expected to be gradually extended to more routes. The person in charge of China Eastern Airlines Sichuan Branch said that the world-class airport group in Chengdu-Chongqing area is under construction, with great development potential and promising market prospects. The daily flight volume of Eastern Airlines "Shanghai-Chengdu Route" exceeds 20 flights, and C919 is adopted to fly, so the route layout is more calm.
By the end of last year, C919 had accumulated 32 customers and 1,035 orders. Orders continue to expand this year. In April 2023, China Commercial Aircraft signed a purchase agreement with HNA Aviation Group for 100 aircraft, including 60 C919 aircraft.
According to industry insiders, a new type of aircraft needs a series of preparations to fly commercial routes, including the guarantee of airline crew and airport ground services, and these professional guarantees must have corresponding qualifications and experience corresponding training. This is one of the reasons why there are fewer C919 flight routes at present.
Not only the birth of a product, but also the birth of an industry.
Large aircraft is known as the jewel in the industrial crown, which is a concentrated expression of a country’s scientific and technological ability, industrial level and comprehensive strength. The commercial operation and mass production of domestic civil large aircraft C919 will drive the development of the whole aircraft manufacturing industry chain.
Li Xiaojin, director of civil aviation university of china Institute of Aviation Economy, told reporters that the first flight of C919 was not only the birth of a product, but also the birth of an industry. "The big plane is not only to meet the development needs of the aviation field, but also to promote the significant progress of many basic disciplines, help the group breakthrough of key technologies in new materials, modern manufacturing, advanced power, electronic information, automatic control, computers and other fields, and stimulate the development of many high-tech industries."
Li Xiaojin said that the domestic large aircraft put into commercial operation achieved two "from 0 to 1" breakthroughs. One is technically "from 0 to 1". "A C919 contains more than 4 million parts, each part should be safe and reliable enough, and the assembly and review process also has strict safety standards. On the basis of global procurement, China has produced domestic large aircraft with independent innovation, and gradually increased the localization rate in the process. This is an amazing breakthrough. " Li Xiaojin said. The second is the breakthrough of "from 0 to 1" in the market. Compared with Boeing, Airbus and other countries’ aviation manufacturing enterprises in the same period, domestic civil aircraft manufacturing enterprises have almost started from scratch in terms of market awareness, market ability and market experience. The commercial operation of the first C919 has taken an important step and is also a new beginning.
The catalogue unit price of C919 is 653 million yuan, which realizes commercial operation and market-oriented mass production, brings business opportunities for upstream and downstream enterprises, and promotes the comprehensive upgrading of the domestic aviation industry chain.
According to reports, the industrial chain of large aircraft is mainly composed of airframe manufacturing, power plant, airborne system, spare parts and raw materials. Among them, the manufacturing value of airframe accounts for about 1/3, including nose, fuselage, fuselage, hatch, etc., which is mainly borne by enterprises under the aviation industry and has a high degree of localization. At present, the power plant is mainly supported by foreign enterprises, and it is expected to use domestic commercial aero-engines in the future. The high profit rate of airborne system products is attracting a large number of high-tech enterprises to join this field. Parts and components include forged castings, standard parts, electronic components, etc. Many domestic enterprises, including a group of private enterprises, participated. In the process of supporting C919, these enterprises not only obtained orders, but also achieved technological breakthroughs. Raw materials include aluminum alloy, composite materials, titanium alloy, high-strength steel, etc., among which a number of enterprises such as Chinalco and Baosteel undertake heavy responsibilities.
Civil aviation university of china Institute of Aviation Economics estimates that if the life cycle of civil aircraft is 10 years, the contribution ratio of economic added value brought by large aircraft to China is 1︰86, and the employment contribution ratio is 1︰9.6. Li Xiaojin, for example, said that the outer "shells" of the C919, such as the nose, fuselage, tail and wings, came from China’s Chengfei, Hongdu, Shen Fei and Xifei enterprises respectively, and nearly 300,000 people from various fields participated in the development of the C919 large aircraft, thus cultivating a group of local talents in the field of civil aircraft manufacturing.
According to experts’ analysis, based on the current input-output ratio of large aircraft of 1︰80, domestic large aircraft is expected to bring a trillion-dollar market scale to industrial chain enterprises while maintaining the current localization rate of C919 unchanged. With the improvement of localization rate, it will drive the industrial chain supply chain to a new level and inject new development impetus into China aviation industry.
Continue to lay a solid foundation and open up more room for development
The maturity and large-scale market-oriented operation of an aircraft requires years of continuous optimization and upgrading after entering the commercial operation stage. The successful completion of the first commercial flight of C919 is not only a historic moment for China’s large aircraft industry, but also a new starting point for China’s civil aviation industry.
According to the previous analysis by Mercator China Institute, a German think tank, small batch production is not feasible due to the high development cost of passenger aircraft, and the domestic market size in China undoubtedly provides an important local advantage for C919 mass production. C919 has broad development space, and it can enter foreign markets and participate in global competition in the future.
Relevant data show that in the next 20 years, more than 40,000 civil airliners will be delivered worldwide, with a value of more than 6 trillion US dollars. Among them, China aviation market is expected to receive more than 9,000 new aircraft, worth about 1.39 trillion US dollars. Facing more and more orders, how can C919 achieve lean mass production and high quality delivery?
"This tests the core competitiveness of related companies." Li Xiaojin said: First, airlines should timely and comprehensively feed back the accumulated experience in subsequent commercial flights to manufacturers, and support Comac China and related suppliers to gradually improve the technical details. Second, the manufacturer should break through the core technology and material barriers as soon as possible. The value of self-sufficient parts in China is not high enough in the total number of large aircraft, especially the lack of materials and technology such as aero-engine blades. Breaking through these bottlenecks will be the key to mass production, delivery and cost control. Third, fully learn the successful experience of international cooperation in industries such as high-speed rail and nuclear power equipment, take mastering independent intellectual property rights as the ultimate goal, adhere to the necessary conditions for independent design, and persist in mastering high-end technical capabilities to strive for a favorable position in international cooperation in the large aircraft industry.
Facing the huge international market, domestic large aircraft need to continue to lay a solid foundation in industrial chain upgrading, market expansion and commercial operation, and open up more room for development.
"The huge scale of China’s civil aircraft market is the advantage of China’s development of domestic large aircraft. The needs of passengers and shippers must be regarded as the starting point and the foothold of civil aircraft development." Li Xiaojin said that it is necessary to promote the integration of aviation manufacturing and air transportation, that is, "the integration of the two airlines", including the integration of ideas, talents, services, standards and work.
He said that breakthroughs can be made in both soft and hard aspects in the future. The first is market capacity and policy system. Domestic civil aircraft should rely on the big market in China, and in this process, strengthen the market concept, enhance the market capability and improve the legal and regulatory system. The second is core technology and core materials. Taking the operation of C919 as an opportunity, we will persist in independent innovation in the process of global opening-up and speed up technological breakthroughs in core products such as engines, landing gears and airborne equipment.
In the future, more and better domestic large aircraft will soar above the blue sky.