NewChina-Russia tie-up on widebody jet may get started before home-grown plane makes maiden flight
Aerospace giant UAC says widebody agreement may be signed before year-end, as maiden flight of indigenous narrowbody aircraft is delayed
A China-Russia collaboration to develop a widebody jet to break the Boeing-Airbus duopoly may be kickstarted before China's delayed indigenous narrowbody C919 passenger jet makes its maiden flight, now postponed to next year.
Yuri Slyusar, the president of Russian aerospace and defence giant UAC, yesterday said an agreement for the project, which has been under feasibility study for two years, may "hopefully" be signed between the two countries before the end of the year.
"We are now at a 'second gate' [of negotiations] deciding how to divide the labour [with Commercial Aircraft Corp of China, or Comac]. More details may be available next March," he said at the biannual Beijing Aviation Expo.
Industry insiders had expected the development of the jumbo jet, possibly to be called "C929", to be on the agenda of Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting with President Xi Jinping in Beijing earlier this month.
"We thought something would be announced then but it wasn't," said a Comac official who did not want to be identified.
This would mark the most significant cooperation in aerospace manufacturing between China and Russia and their joint attempt to enter a market dominated by Boeing and Airbus.