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posted by janrinok on Tuesday November 03 2015, @12:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the early-days dept.

The first plane produced by a Chinese government initiative to compete in the market for large passenger jetliners has been unveiled in Shanghai.

The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) showed off its twin-engine C919 in a ceremony on Monday attended by some 4,000 government officials and other guests at a hangar near the Pudong International Airport.

For China, the plane represents at least seven years of efforts in a state-mandated drive to reduce dependence on European consortium Airbus and Boeing of the United States, and even compete against them.

"China's air transport industry cannot completely rely on imports. A great nation must have its own large commercial aircraft," the country's civil aviation chief Li Jiaxiang told an audience of government and industry officials.


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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by chrysosphinx on Tuesday November 03 2015, @01:26PM

    by chrysosphinx (5262) on Tuesday November 03 2015, @01:26PM (#257902)

    Are we really supposed to believe China made no passenger jet ever before? If so, than I failed at it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Y-10 [wikipedia.org]

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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by janrinok on Tuesday November 03 2015, @01:33PM

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday November 03 2015, @01:33PM (#257905) Journal

    It is the first passenger aircraft 'designed to compete in the market for large passenger jetliners' to go into production. Furthermore, from your link:

    By the time the prototype was first flown, debate about its viability surfaced, based on a design that was already 30 years old, CAAC, which already owned a modest Western fleet, would not purchase the plane. China was beginning to embrace trade with the West, and some saw the isolationist design as an inefficient throwback to Maoism. China in the early reform era was ruled by rehabilitated cadres previously persecuted in the Cultural Revolution by Wang Hongwen, the project initiator, resulting in the cancellation of the project in 1983, officially due to cost and market concerns. During its maiden flights, no governmental officials attended the ceremonies for fear of the connection to Wang Hongwen and the Gang of Four. By 1985, SAMF had been granted production licensing for the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 and shifted all efforts towards that program.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @01:40PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @01:40PM (#257908)

      I wouldn't get into that made in china jet. I'd be afraid of the wings falling off.

      • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @02:49PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @02:49PM (#257944)

        But you gladly fly in the 787? The one that the engineers who built it, refuse to fly in?
        After all, this C919 is likely very similar to the 787. I dare to venture that the designs were stolen from Boeing!

        • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday November 03 2015, @05:03PM

          by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday November 03 2015, @05:03PM (#258004) Journal

          "I dare to venture that the designs were stolen from Boeing!"

          I would have guessed Sikorsky.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @05:04PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @05:04PM (#258005)

          I also won't be getting into an MD80 after the stories I heard from the guys that built them.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by mendax on Tuesday November 03 2015, @09:05PM

          by mendax (2840) on Tuesday November 03 2015, @09:05PM (#258137)

          The 787 hasn't done too badly. The 707 had lots of problems when it was first introduced. A quick check of the aviation-safety.net database shows 11 fatal incidents between 1959 and 1964 with 699 fatalities (if I added up the numbers right). Several of these accidents are due to pilot errors, as pilots were still acquiring experience with jet aircraft, but some were due to bugs in the design. In later years these bugs continued to crop up, resulting in fatalities.

          As I recall, there has not been a single crash of a 787 since it has been in service. Problems? Sure, like the battery problems that Boeing has since rectified.

          There is something that is important to recognize in the aviation industry: It learns from its mistakes. As a result, Boeing has been able to build highly reliable planes, albeit built on the dead bodies of the people killed in the accidents through which it learned about its mistakes. The track record of the Boeing 777 I think proves my point. Only one hull loss due to a proven defect in the design of the aircraft itself--no fatalities. Not bad. (Russian missiles, suicidal pilots, fires on the ground, or uncontained engine failures don't count.)

          --
          It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
    • (Score: 4, Informative) by iamjacksusername on Tuesday November 03 2015, @03:48PM

      by iamjacksusername (1479) on Tuesday November 03 2015, @03:48PM (#257980)

      You are absolutely correct. The Chinese government made a concerted effort to acquire technology from Airbus and Boeing to jump-start their own aircraft industry after their own attempts crashed and burned. They realized building a modern aircraft takes an accumulated expertise and is not something where you can simply "apply money."

      The Chinese eventually succeeded in acquiring the necessary experience and technologies when Alan Mulally made the decision to outsource most of the sub-components of the Dreamliner to Asian manufacturers who had never built aircraft parts before. Boeing taught the Chinese how to build a modern aircraft. I remember the joke in the industry at the time about Boeing separating their defense business and moving the headquarters for remainder of their business to Beijing. Only it was half-joking from the aerospace engineers I had heard it from...