Aviation
Commercial /
China
delays caused
US export rules will hamper certification of new Chinese C919 aircraft
Comac C919
Weimeng, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Gabriela Ramos
9/30/2021
Last Monday, September 27, COMAC reported that its new C919 aircraft will be delayed in certification and first delivery due to US export regulations.
The first delivery of the aircraft will be to a national airline, but even so, COMAC needs to obtain an authorization for sale from its suppliers, some of which are headquartered in the United States.
This will cause a significant delay in completing the documentation. The aircraft has been under development by COMAC for 13 years, and is expected to debut with a delay even compared to the new Russian MC-21.
As such, the new aircraft will not appear at the China Airshow, China's premier aviation event, which will run from 28 September to 3 October.
An industry source told Reuters that “COMAC is very concerned about test flights. They are late and are flying as much as they can to meet the minimum hours required for Chinese certification. Despite all the problems, COMAC is very determined to obtain certification, as this is a fundamental political task”.
In addition to the minimum hours of certification, COMAC will also need to work on upgrades for its aircraft, which will cause the first aircraft to be delivered in a “beta” version, that is, without all the features and equipment included in the project.
In the first years of the C919 on the market, production will still be on a small scale. State-owned China Eastern Airlines expects to receive its first copy by the end of the year, then two more in 2022 and two more in 2023.
There are currently 815 provisional orders for the aircraft, all from Chinese airlines, and five firm orders from China Eastern Airlines.
Comac C919
Shimin Gu, GFDL 1.2, via Wikimedia Commons
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Gabriela Ramos
Gabriela is the latest addition to the editorial team of our website, having provided us with her solid background in editing, publishing and photography, and her interest and training in aviation history and historiography. His good taste and common sense and great cleverness and sagacity in the selection of themes and materials greatly enriched our vocabulary and narrative style. Gabriela brought unusual predicates and came to stay, helping to point the way of success of our portal.
   
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