By Bjorn Fehrm
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Introduction
September 29, 2016, ©. Leeham Co: We will now finish our series about the Russian-Chinese wide-body with looking at who will have what role in the program.
Figure 1. Concept for new wide-body airliner. Source: United Aircraft.
As we described in the initial article, “Background and outlook,” Russia and China have vastly different competencies when it comes to making a state of the art wide-body aircraft.
Russia has made airliners since the 1930s, including wide-body jets. China did not design its own jet aircraft (military or civil) until the mid-1980s. Most of the aircraft produced still today in China have their origin in Russian designs.
At the same time, we saw in the article about the market demand for the aircraft that the Chinese market is 90% of the home market. This makes for China demanding important parts of the aircraft’s production, and China has the money to invest in production facilities.
All this will influence how different parts of the project will be shared between Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) and Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC).
Summary:
- Russia and China enter the wide-body project with widely different knowledge bases.
- Russia has long time knowledge on how to develop and produce aircraft and their engines.
- China on the other hand has the market for the aircraft.
- China also know a lot about serial production and have money to invest. Read more
Assessing the MC-21 future
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Introduction
Feb. 9, 2017, © Leeham Co.: Russia’s Irkut designed a mainline jet to compete with the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 families that, from a passenger experience
Irkut MC-21 at roll-out. Photo via Google images.
viewpoint, is the best in class.
The MC-21 has a wider fuselage than the A320 (which is wider than the 737). Seats and the aisle are the widest in the class. The overhead bin space is plentiful.
But the airplane is hampered by its environment: Russia itself.
Summary
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Posted on February 13, 2017 by Scott Hamilton
Airbus, Boeing, China, Comac, Irkut, Leeham News and Comment, Pratt & Whitney, Premium, United Aircraft
737, A320, Airbus, ARJ-21, Boeing, C919, C929, Irkut, MC-21
Assessing the future of COMAC programs
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Introduction
Feb. 6, 2017, © Leeham Co.: China’s effort to become a viable commercial aerospace alternative was filled with rocky fits and starts for its two signature airliner programs, the AVIC ARJ-21 and the COMAC C919.
The ARJ-21 regional jet finally entered service after delays of eight years. The C919 target EIS is now 2019, six years after the original date. The first flight hasn’t even taken place.
Chinese officials set a target EIS for the C929 of 2026.
A rough road remains ahead for each program.
Summary
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1 Comment
Posted on February 6, 2017 by Scott Hamilton
Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, CFM, Comac, Premium, United Aircraft
Airbus, ARJ-21, Boeing, Bombardier, C919, C929, Comac, LEAP-X, United Aircraft Corp.
Bjorn’s Corner: Turbofan developments in 2017
By Bjorn Fehrm
January 06, 2017, ©. Leeham Co: Before we finish of our series on airliner turbofan technology, let’s spend this Corner on what will happen on the airliner engine front during 2017.
While there is no totally new engine that comes into the market during 2017 there are a number of new variants of existing engine families that will be introduced.
Figure 1. GasTurb principal representation of a three shaft turbofan like our reference Rolls-Royce Trent XWB. Source: GasTurb.
If we start with the engines for regional/single aisle aircraft and then climb the thrust scale, we will cover the engines in climbing thrust class.
Read more
31 Comments
Posted on January 6, 2017 by Bjorn Fehrm
Airbus, Bjorn's Corner, Boeing, CFM, Comac, CSeries, E-Jet, GE Aviation, Irkut, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce, United Aircraft
737 MAX, A320NEO, A330neo, A350-1000, Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, CFM, Comac, CSeries, Embraer, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce
US, EU ignore Chinese, Russian subsidies
Nov. 15, 2016, © Leeham Co.: Government subsidies to commercial aircraft companies appear to be increasing despite the 12-year disputes before the World Trade Organization between Europe and the US over Airbus and Boeing aid.
Yet the US and Europeans appear to be doing little to try and curb the subsidies to new competitors.
Read more
15 Comments
Posted on November 15, 2016 by Scott Hamilton
Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, China, Comac, CSeries, Embraer, Irkut, Lessors, Sukhoi, United Aircraft
737, 787-9, A319, A320, A330neo, A350, Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, C919, C929, China, Comac, CS300, CS500, CSeries, Embraer, MC-21, Russia, United Aircraft Corp.
Bjorn’s Corner: The Engine challenge
By Bjorn Fehrm
October 21, 2016, ©. Leeham Co: In our Corners on East bloc aeronautical industries, we could see that the hardest part to master in a new civilian airliner is the engine.
Both new airliners from Russia and China (Irkut MC-21 and COMAC C919) start their lives with Western engines.
Why is this so? What are the challenges that make engines harder to create than aircraft?
LEAP-1C which will be standard engine on COMAC C919. Source: COMAC.
We will spend several Corners on the main reasons that airliner engines are harder to do than aircraft. Read more
18 Comments
Posted on October 21, 2016 by Bjorn Fehrm
Bjorn's Corner, CFM, China, Comac, United Aircraft, United Engine Corp.
C919, CFM LEAP-1C, Comac, MC-21, UAC, UEC
From zero to 10,000 in 50 years; can COMAC duplicate this achievement?
By Bjorn Fehrm
October 19, 2016, ©. Leeham Co: Airbus delivered its 10,000 aircraft last week (Figure 1), an A350-900 delivered to Singapore Airlines.
Delivering the 10,000 aircraft after 50 years of start of project is impressive, especially as the competition, Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), the late McDonnell Douglas Corp and Lockheed Co, fought Airbus every step of the way.
Figure 1. Airbus 10,000th aircraft for Singapore Airlines. Source: Airbus.
We have a new player starting its 50 years, Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, COMAC. It’s on its eighth year and the competitions’ sentiments are: “It will take long before they can compete, decades!”
Let’s compare with the rise of Airbus and see what can be learned. Will COMAC deliver its 10,000th aircraft in 50 years? Or in a shorter time? Read more
55 Comments
Posted on October 19, 2016 by Bjorn Fehrm
Airbus, Boeing, China, Comac, McDonnell Douglas, United Aircraft
Airbus, Boeing, Comac, McDonnell Douglas, United Aircraft Corp.
Bjorn’s Corner; The Chinese civil aircraft industry
By Bjorn Fehrm.
September 30, 2016, ©. Leeham Co: In our Corners on East bloc aeronautical industries, we will now look at the Chinese civil aircraft industry.
The Chinese aero industry has similarities with the Russian industry in its overall structure. From the start of the industry in the 1950s, it was structured after the Soviet model of research institutes, design bureaus and production companies.
The difference to the Soviet Union was that its own Chinese aircraft designs only started in the 1970s. Before that, the industry built Soviet designs on license and then modified versions of licensed designs.
The first own aircraft designs were presented in the 1980s with a focus on military designs for the first 20 years. Read more
10 Comments
Posted on September 30, 2016 by Bjorn Fehrm
Antonov, Bjorn's Corner, Boeing, China, Comac, Douglas Aircraft Co, McDonnell Douglas, United Aircraft
An-12, An-24, Antonov, ARJ21, AVIC, C919, Comac, UAC
Russian-Chinese wide-body: Program responsibilities
By Bjorn Fehrm
Subscription required.
Introduction
September 29, 2016, ©. Leeham Co: We will now finish our series about the Russian-Chinese wide-body with looking at who will have what role in the program.
Figure 1. Concept for new wide-body airliner. Source: United Aircraft.
As we described in the initial article, “Background and outlook,” Russia and China have vastly different competencies when it comes to making a state of the art wide-body aircraft.
Russia has made airliners since the 1930s, including wide-body jets. China did not design its own jet aircraft (military or civil) until the mid-1980s. Most of the aircraft produced still today in China have their origin in Russian designs.
At the same time, we saw in the article about the market demand for the aircraft that the Chinese market is 90% of the home market. This makes for China demanding important parts of the aircraft’s production, and China has the money to invest in production facilities.
All this will influence how different parts of the project will be shared between Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) and Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC).
Summary:
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Posted on September 29, 2016 by Bjorn Fehrm
China, Comac, GE Aviation, Irkut, Premium, Rolls-Royce, United Aircraft, United Engine Corp., YAK
C919, Comac, GE Aviation, MC-21, Rolls-Royce, SSJ100, UAC, UEC
Bjorn’s Corner; The Russian civil aircraft engine companies
By Bjorn Fehrm
September 23, 2016, ©. Leeham Co: In our Corners on East bloc aeronautical industries, we now look at the main Russian civil aircraft engine companies. As with the aircraft side, there is one overall Russian engine company since 2008, United Engine Corporation (UEC), Figure 1.
This is a state-owned holding which incorporates 80%of the gas turbine engine companies from the Soviet times, employing 80,000 people.
The aim is to coordinate and optimize Russia’s engineering and production resources around present and future gas turbine engines for Aeronautical, Naval and Stationary use.
Figure 1. Engine companies in United Engine Corporation. Source: UEC.
Soviet and Russian engines have historically been named after their chief designer in the design bureau. We will now describe the main entities in UEC that work with airliner engines. Read more
26 Comments
Posted on September 23, 2016 by Bjorn Fehrm
Antonov, Bjorn's Corner, Irkut, Sukhoi, United Aircraft, United Engine Corp., YAK
Aviadvigatel, Irkut, MC-21, PD-14, SaM146, Saturn, SSJ100, Sukhoi, UAC, UEC, YAK
Russian-Chinese wide-body: Aircraft performance
By Bjorn Fehrm
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Introduction
September 19, 2016, ©. Leeham Co: In Part 4 of the article series, we put together an assumed complete Chinese-Russian wide-body aircraft with fuselage, wing, engines, etc. It is now time to understand what kind of performance that can be expected, given the data we have from the wide-body partners, Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) and the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC).
Figure 1. Concept for new widebody airliner. Source: United Aircraft.
We will combine these data with the ones we have deduced as plausible to fill the gaps, given the time frame and technology level that UAC and COMAC intend to use.
Out will come a first estimate of what kind of performance such an aircraft can have in terms of efficiency and payload versus range capability.
Summary:
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Posted on September 19, 2016 by Bjorn Fehrm
Airbus, Boeing, China, Comac, GE Aviation, Premium, Rolls-Royce, United Aircraft, United Engine Corp.
787-9, A330-900, Airbus, Boeing, Comac, GE, Rolls-Royce, UAC, UEC
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