What is the level of China’s C919 passenger aircraft, and what are the prospects compared with the Boeing 737 family?
Recently, civil aviation passenger aircraft have attracted a lot of attention, and we have never had such urgent expectations for China’s civil aviation passenger aircraft as we do today.
In May 2017, China’s C919 passenger aircraft completed its maiden flight, nearly five years ago. As China’s first self-developed single-aisle large trunk airliner, can the C919 really compete with Boeing aircraft and become the main force of China’s air transport in the future?
China C919 single-aisle large trunk line airliner
Today, more than 90% of China’s civil aviation market share is divided between Airbus and Boeing. Take the Boeing 737 series as an example, from the first flight in 1967 to 2007, the number of orders for this aircraft has exceeded 10,000.
As a rising star, C919, in terms of technical strength, in the face of the old Boeing 737, how many chances can it win?
Boeing delivered the 9999th Boeing 737
Next, we conduct in-depth analysis from the aspects of comprehensive performance and market environment, and take a look at the fate of C919 in the future.
In terms of design, the C919 is comparable to the Boeing 737-800
As of 2019, the Boeing 737 family has received more than 15,000 aircraft orders worldwide, making it the world’s best-selling commercial airliner. After decades of development, the Boeing 737 has spawned a total of 14 models, different models with slightly different performance.
In order to make it more intuitive, we chose the Boeing 737-800 as the benchmark model with the C919, which is also one of the main reference models selected when designing the C919.
The Boeing plane is ready to take off
From the appearance of the aircraft, the Boeing 737-800 is 39.5 meters long, with a wingspan of 34.3 meters, a fuselage height of 12.5 meters, an empty weight of 41.1 tons, a maximum take-off weight of 79 tons, a maximum landing weight of 66.3 tons, a standard range of 4075 kilometers, a maximum range of 5665 kilometers, an economic life of 90,000 flight hours, and a basic model with 167 seats.
Cabin distribution of the Boeing 737-800
Look at the C919 passenger aircraft, with a length of 38 meters, a wingspan of 35.8 meters, a fuselage height of 12 meters, an empty weight of 42.1 tons, a maximum take-off weight of 72.5 tons, a maximum landing weight of 66.6 tons, a standard range of 4075 kilometers, a maximum range of 5555 kilometers, an economic life of 90,000 flight hours, and a basic model with 168 seats.
C919 aircraft undergoing final assembly
From the above data, it is not difficult to see that C919 and Boeing 737-800 models, from appearance parameters to basic performance indicators, the two are almost the same, basically at the same level.
The size of the aircraft, take-off weight, as well as passenger capacity, economy, etc., C919 in design, basically the same as Boeing 737-800, and even some parameter indicators, but also more than Boeing 737-800.
However, for a commercial aircraft, from a commercial point of view, if the C919 does not have its own unique advantages, it is equivalent to no advantages.
Takeoff C919
Boeing 737-800 has accumulated a lot of old customers in the international market, and long-term market application, so that Boeing in this type of aircraft, precipitated more technical experience, from the reliability point of view, Boeing 737-800 seems to have more advantages, and C919 in this regard, is still a blank.
In fact, in addition to the basic performance parameters of C919, which remain not behind Boeing 737-800, C919 also has insurmountable advantages in some designs, technical applications and materials.
For example, in the fuselage structure of the C919 aircraft, a large number of advanced composite materials and aluminum-lithium alloy materials are used, of which the use of composite materials reaches 20%, and titanium alloy, aluminum alloy and other materials, accounting for more than 20% of the overall weight of the fuselage.
The main system of the C919
The application of these new materials and designs makes the C919’s body mechanism more robust, comfortable and economical, and to a large extent, to achieve the same performance, the C919 may be less dependent on the software system.
In addition, the noise in the cabin of the C919 may be lower than 60 decibels, while the cabin noise of the same type of foreign aircraft is basically about 80 decibels, which is undoubtedly a breakthrough and advantage.
Advanced technology employed in the C919
Overall, C919 is not inferior to Boeing 737-800 models in terms of comprehensive performance, and the two may be slightly different in some details, but this does not affect the competitiveness of C919 in front of Boeing 737-800.
Market environment, C919 opportunities and challenges coexist
The Boeing 737-800 is a mature old model, the C919 is a new model that has recently come out, if you want to buy an aircraft yourself, what will you choose?
I believe that many people will still choose Boeing 737-800, because the aircraft is different from other products, in addition to excellent performance, but also fully consider the stability and reliability of aircraft performance.
Key market environment for C919
Isn’t there a chance of winning the C919 in front of the market compared with the Boeing 737-800?
The past success of the Boeing 737-800 in the international market can indeed be used as a plus, but we must know that the C919 also has advantages that customers can hardly refuse.
First, many components and systems of the C919 are subject to global tendering. This means that the C919 brings together the world’s top technology, and in terms of reliability and stability, it is not behind the Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
Source of supply for some parts of C919
For example, the engine for the C919 is supplied by CFM International, the lighting system is from United Technologies Aerospace Systems, and the fly-by-wire flight control system is supplied by Honeywell International.
These companies have mature technology and reputation in the industry, and the advantages that C919 does not have on its own, just show through these companies.
Second, C919 has completely independent intellectual property rights, which is also a key factor for C919 to compete with Boeing 737-800.
If you have this idea, then you are very wrong, Boeing produces aircraft parts, it is also globally purchased, others can, why can’t we?
Engine and fuselage of the C919
Moreover, C919 is designed by us independently, and many key components on the aircraft have also been completely Chineseized, and the process of Sinicization is also accelerating. C919’s technology and products are independently controllable, and it adopts advanced international technology.
In this regard, the C919 is somewhat similar to the Boeing 737-800, but for us, why is it not the advantage of the C919?
In addition, compared with the Boeing 737-800 model, the C919 has a short time and the aircraft is more flexible. That is to say, after the C919 is put into service, there is more room for upgrades.
C919 in test flight
Although there is not much difference in the comprehensive performance of the two at present, the parameters reported by the C919 may be more conservative. The Boeing 737 has been upgraded and evolved for fifty or sixty years, but the C919 is still a newborn child, and it is self-evident who has more potential development space.
If there are Boeing aircraft, why spend a lot of effort to develop the C919
The C919 has received more than 850 orders from customers outside China, and these aircraft will be delivered in 2022, which is an important step for the C919 to market.
At present, China has used about 719 Boeing 737-800 models, including China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines and other airlines, all of which are using this aircraft.
Compared with the Boeing 737-800 with hundreds of millions of dollars in price, the public price of the C919 basic model is 80 million US dollars, and the C919 has its own unique advantages in price.
C919 in flight
Some people may say that since there is already a Boeing 737-800, and at present, the advantages of C919 are not obvious, why should we invest a lot of money to develop C919?
It can be expected that C919 will be difficult to fully recover its R&D costs in the short term, and even face a lot of technical and market risks.
The C919 does not have an overwhelming advantage in terms of technology, but this does not affect our goal of adhering to the development of large Chinese aircraft.
C919 cabin interior
Driven by economic globalization, in most cases, we can indeed buy goods that we cannot make ourselves. However, this does not mean that we should give up the opportunity to develop this technology ourselves.
And, on the other hand, if you don’t have the technology, you will be led by the market. Take aircraft as an example, what aircraft Boeing has, you can only use what aircraft, can not tailor for yourself, let alone pricing power and unconditional use rights.
epilogue
The C919 is still in the stage of airworthiness certification and is expected to be realized in 2022, which will be an important step for Chinese aircraft from research and development to the market.
Every time I go to the airport, looking at the imported planes everywhere, some people feel proud and feel that it is very face-saving to sit on the imported planes. Don’t forget that Boeing and Airbus aircraft, no matter how good they perform, they are always someone else’s.
Many of the planes at the airport, even on a chartered basis, are essentially not ours. And once these aircraft need to be repaired, or replaced parts, most of them have to find manufacturers to get goods.
It’s like buying an imported car, and once the other party says they don’t want to fix it, your car can only lie at home as a decoration.
It is foreseeable that the time when C919 is officially put into commercial operation will be getting closer and closer, and this day is worth looking forward to.
If the C919 is put into service, I’m sure there are many people who would love to experience it once. Don’t say that Boeing, Airbus aircraft are more reliable, similar such unfounded assessments, do we hear less?
The C919 is our own big plane, and we can’t easily bow to Boeing and Airbus until we don’t fly and use it.
Recently, we have experienced a lot of things, and we have a deeper understanding of civil aviation passenger aircraft, we need a good plane, we also need a plane of our own, what do you think?
