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Re: Well, that didn't take China long!
Originally posted by Mega View Post
From Aviation Week:
First Customers Order Just 55 Firm C919Back in April 2007 both Aviation Week and Air & Cosmos, the French language aerospace news magazine, reported that an A320 delivered to China had "disappeared" off the civilian registry. The theory at the time was that the Chinese planned to dismantle and reverse engineer it [the alternate theory at the time was that the plane had crashed and the Chinese did not want to admit to the hull loss].
Nov 16, 2010
By Bradley Perrett perrett@aviationweek.com
Zhuhai, China
The first orders for the Comac C919 airline total no more than 55, a surprisingly small figure that includes a mere five for each of China’s big state airlines.
China Southern, Air China and China Eastern will also take options on only 15 each—suggesting an extraordinarily low degree of commitment to a project on which China is pinning its future as a commercial aircraft builder.
The biggest initial customer will be Hainan Airlines, which signed a letter of intent to order 20 C919s, with none under option. GE Commercial Aviation Services (Gecas) agreed to order 10 while CDB Leasing, an arm Comac financier China Development Bank, signed for 10. It is not clear how many of CDB’s aircraft will be ordered and how many covered by options.
The total of 100 orders and options and the breakdown between customers match expectations. But all 100 aircraft were expected to have been firm.
In its announcement at the air show, Comac described the deals with all six customers as “orders”, leading to widespread news reporting of the inflated figure...
When 100 "Orders" Really Isn't
Posted by Joe Anselmo at 11/16/2010 12:23 PM CST
As it strives to become a formidable competitor in commercial aircraft, China’s Comac needs to work on industry jargon. At the Zhuhai air show, Comac announced that it has received 100 initial “orders” for its new narrowbody jet, the C919. That figure was picked up by news outlets around the world, including the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, the BBC, Marketwatch, ABC News and China's People's Daily.
But as Aviation Week Beijing bureau chief Brad Perrett reports, the firm 919 orders total no more than 55, “a surprisingly small figure that includes a mere five for each of China’s big state airlines.” Perrett says the order book for Comac’s ARJ21 regional jet also is inflated by “orders” that are really options, “possibly due to a mistake in translation.”
The airline business is brutal. A cheaper entry will certainly be attractive to the management and shareholders of the airlines. I'm not sure how attractive it will be to the passengers, however ["If it's not Boeing, I'm not going"]. As an engineer, and private pilot, who logs a lot of air miles in commercial and private aircraft, one of my fears for some time is the entry of substandard Chinese made parts into the world aircraft fleet. The levels of corruption and graft imbedded within the industry in such places as the Persian Gulf airlines, along with the constant cost pressures of being in a commodity business [selling a perishable commodity like airline seats is much like selling lettuce] makes this entirely imaginable.
BTW: Here's the Chinese "knock-off" of the MD80. It's called the ARJ21 Regional Jet.
To be fair, there are some important differences between both the ARJ21 and the C919 and their immediate "western" comparables. In both cases the Chinese aircraft have design parameters that cater to the high, hot, short runway conditions in much of western China. In the case of the C919 the wingspan is measurably larger than the comparable A320 [35.8 m vs 34.1 m] and the engine thrust higher [30,000 lbs vs 25,000 lbs].
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Re: Well, that didn't take China long!
I'm sure the national airlines are forced to buy. Who wants to test a beta aircraft?Comment
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Re: Well, that didn't take China long!
On the advice of a friend who was a commercial pilot, I won't fly an Airbus, AKA "French Lawn Dart", and I won't fly a Chinese-made jet. Heck! What am I talking about? Until the U.S. ditches the TSA and puts sane airport security procedures in place, a la Israel's model, I won't fly at all.
Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.Comment
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Re: Well, that didn't take China long!
Dc-9Comment
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Re: Well, that didn't take China long!
Insert Chinese drywall joke here ______________________.Comment
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