China is developing the C919 plane. They are targeting 2016 for a new 156 seat passenger plane. At the previous Airshow China in 2008, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) made its debut as the state-owned company tasked with developing the country’s first large commercial aircraft, the C919.
The Comac C919 will be a planned 156-190 seat narrow-body airliner The C919 forms part of China’s long-term goal to break Airbus and Boeing’s duopoly, and will compete against Airbus A320 family and the Boeing 737 Next Generation.
Honeywell International Inc. will supply power units, on-board computing systems, wheels and brakes; Rockwell Collins Inc. will handle navigation systems; GE Aviation is building the avionics; Eaton Corp. is involved with fuel and hydraulics; and Parker Aerospace of Irvine is responsible for flight controls. Powering the aircraft will be two fuel-efficient engines built by CFM International, a company co-owned by GE and French conglomerate Safran.
Design and assembly of the aircraft will be done in Shanghai, initially using foreign-made jet engines and avionics. However, China has expressed its desire to eventually produce a locally-made engine for the C919.
CFM will supply a version of the LEAP-X engine, the LEAP-X1C, to power the aircraft.
Dimensions of the C919 are very similar to the Airbus A320, possibly to allow for a common pallet to be used. Its fuselage will be 3.96 metres (13 feet) wide, and 4.166 metres (13 feet, 8 inches) high, producing a cross-section of 12.915 square metres (139 square feet). The wingspan will be 33.6 metres (110 feet, 3 inches), or 35.4 metres (116 feet, 3 inches) if winglets are included.
Payload will be 20.4 metric tonnes. Its cruise speed will be Mach 0.785 and it will have a maximum altitude of 12,100 metres (39,800 feet).
There will be two variants. The standard version will have a range of 4,075 km (2,200nm), with the extended-range version able to fly 5,555 km (3,000nm).
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