W
ith its fi rst C919 fl ight-test aircraft now in fi nal assembly,
Comac plans to roll out the aircraft in less than one year
and is trying to prepare it for a fi rst fl ight in late 2015.Construction of the second fl ight-test aircraft is following about
half a year behind the fi rst.
For the 2014 Air Show China in Zhu-
hai Nov. 11-16, the C919 will appear again
as a mock-up and models; but there is a
good chance that one of its prototypes
will overfly the 2016 show as China’s
fi rst production mainline airliner.
Comac has revised some of the speci-
fi cations of the aircraft, which provided
the launch airframe for the same CFM
Leap 1 engine later chosen for the simi-
larly sized Airbus A320neo. An extra
row of six seats will be available in the
C919’s high-density cabin arrangement,
but the designed economic life has been
shortened.
Bigger changes are in store for
Comac’s earlier aircraft, the much de-
layed ARJ21 regional jet. The manu-
facturer now expects the ARJ21 will
achieve airworthiness certifi cation this
year and adds that it is planning an up-
date of the model.
Comac will not comment on its target
for fi rst delivery of the C919, however. In
May, it said that would occur in 2018, 10
years after development was launched
as a national program to advance the
Chinese aeronautics industry.
Final assembly of the aircraft began
on Sept. 19. As of mid-October, when
Comac supplied photographs to Avia-
tion Week from its new Shanghai facto-
ry, the C919 prototype’s forward and the
Chengdu-built nose had been lowered
into the assembly tool (see cover photo).
Delivery of the C919 fuselage sections
from Comac’s structural suppliers, all
subsidiaries of Avic, began in May. The
last was the mid-aft fuselage, which, like
the forward fuselage, was built by Avic’s
Hongdu Aviation works at Nanchang.
The center fuselage and center wingbox
come from Avic’s Xian plant, which is
also building the left and right wing.
“Final assembly is proceeding steadi-
ly,” says Comac, adding that it is trying
to complete joining the structure by
year-end, after which it will integrate
the on-board systems. The roll-out is
due in the third quarter of 2015.
Making a fi rst fl ight around the end
of next year is an ambition but seem-
ingly not a definite expectation; the
company says it is “striving” to do that.
Considering that the fi rst aircraft may
not be rolled out until September, the
timing looks tight. Mitsubishi Aircraft,
which rolled out its fi rst MRJ regional
jet on Oct. 18, is allowing about half
a year for ground tests before flying
(AW&ST Oct. 27, p. 34).
The latest of several C919 schedule
slippages, announced in May, seems to
have amounted to only a few months.
Just before that change in the plan,
the fi rst aircraft was due to be rolled
out in June 2015 and fly four months
later. When the program was launched
in 2008, the fi rst fl ight was scheduled
for this year and fi rst delivery in 2016,
allowing eight years for development—
which was generous by international
standards but realistically so, consider-
ing the limited experience of the Chi-
nese managers and engineers.
Comac will use six aircraft for fl ight
testing, one more than originally
planned. Parts for several of them are
being made, the company says; the sec-
ond aircraft is due to enter fi nal assem-
bly in the fi rst half of next year.
Well aware that the major modules of
early prototypes sometimes do not fi t,
Comac managers were a little nervous
in awaiting delivery of the fi rst C919’s
major structural assemblies, program
of cials say. Asked whether mistakes
have appeared in fi nal assembly, Comac
does not directly answer but says: “The
problems of all fabrication methods
have been resolved in the trial produc-
tion phase” in the manufacturing ofBradley Perrett Beijing
Into Assembly
Comac, striving to fl y the C919 by the end of
2015, is also planning an ARJ21 upgrade
ZHUHAI 2014The C919 nose will be fi tted with a
load-bearing windscreen frame.52 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/NOVEMBER 3/10, 2014 AviationWeek.com/awst
COMAC PHOTOS
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