Chinese-Russian Joint-Venture Jet Unveiled

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The CR929 will be make its inaugural flight by 2023, according to representatives of the Chinese-Russian joint venture.

Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China and Russia’s United Aircraft Corp. revealed a model of the cockpit and cabin for their planned commercial aircraft joint-venture, a wide-body twin-engine aircraft that would carry up to 320 passengers in a three-cabin arrangement. The CR929 is now scheduled to make its inaugural flight in 2023.

“Our program is making progress and is on schedule,” stated UAC president Yury Slyusar in an event staged at the biennial Airshow China event, in Zhuhai. “It is currently in the preliminary design phase and we are also in the supplier and equipment selection phase, which will finish by the end of 2019.”

The state-sponsored aircraft firms announced their joint-venture, CRAIC (China-Russia Commercial Aircraft International Corp. Ltd.) in 2017. They project a 10% global wide-body market share by 2035. That market is now filled by the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A350 wide-body jets. Manufacturing for the new aircraft would be done in Shanghai.

The two partners are preparing to vet suppliers for the CR929, including GE Aviation’s GEnx and Rolls-Royce’s Trent 7000 turbofan jet engines. Plans call for CRAIC eventually to switch to an engine to be developed by the Aero Engine Corp. of China (AECC) and Russia’s United Engine Corp., according to reports from the event.

Proposals also have been made for the new aircraft’s engine and landing gear, and up to 50 other requests for proposals will be made to various suppliers.

In choosing suppliers for various other components and systems, CRAIC will give priority to Russian and Chinese firms, and then to firms with Russian or Chinese joint-venture partners.