Why the C919 is more than just an aircraft for China

With its home-grown passenger jet, Comac is trying to break into a long-standing aviation duopoly, while China hopes to turn a unipolar world order into a more multipolar one
The C919’s first voyage is a bittersweet success, though, because US-China tensions mean it won’t be able to compete with Boeing and Airbus in their backyard

Stanley Chao

Published: 4:30pm, 23 Jun 2023

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Finally, and with much fanfare, China’s first large home-grown passenger jet made its inaugural commercial flight last month. Produced by the Commercial Aircraft Company of China (Comac), the C919 jet embodies China’s rise to prominence on the world’s stage and reinforces its national pride and self-reliance.

To be sure, the C919’s flight from Shanghai to Beijing came after years of delays, cost overruns, engineering snafus and, more recently, US sanctions. China and its aviation industry have more work to do to garner respect and acceptance from the rest of the world, yet I speak from personal experience when I say that the sceptics would be wise to hedge their bets.

I myself once doubted whether the C919 would come to fruition. In 2013, when I worked as a consultant for Western companies supplying aviation technology to the C919, I wrote the following in Aviation Week: “I don’t think I’ll live long enough to one day step onto a C919 at Beijing Capital International Airport on its way to Chengdu or Shanghai.”

Clearly, my prediction was off by quite a few years, but my doubts were warranted at the time. Comac had been tasked with developing the most advanced kind of commercial jet even though the company had virtually no commercial aircraft experience. I was shocked to encounter engineers and executives asking basic questions such as, “Can you help us design a test protocol?” and “What documents are needed for Federal Aviation Authority approvals?”.

Chinese engineers who were only familiar with military-related aircraft were confronted with challenges unique to the commercial sector: how to keep down the cost of maintenance and repair, select and qualify foreign suppliers and calculate the total cost of ownership.

Seen in this light, Comac’s accomplishments are remarkable. The state-owned company was established only in 2008, yet it completed in 15 years what it took Boeing almost 40 years to do, even though the latter had a host of previous commercial aircraft designs from which to draw.

Outside China, Comac’s success has drawn familiar criticisms and accusations, including that it stole intellectual property and that the C919 is made of foreign parts and technologies. Both lines of criticism are misguided.

For starters, Comac had no reason to abscond with trade secrets when a who’s who of aviation suppliers – such as General Electric, Honeywell and Eaton – were competing fiercely with each other to win its business and secure a piece of what soon will be the world’s largest commercial aviation market. China is expected to purchase more than 8,000 new aircraft in the next 20 years.

Moreover, Comac has used foreign supply chains the same way its global competitors do. Boeing’s website, for instance, boasts suppliers from across the world. That includes China, which provides horizontal stabilisers from Shanghai, vertical fins from Xian and tail sections and cargo doors from Shenyang.

C919 graphic C919 parts manufacturers by country Source: CNN research SCMP

The C919’s first voyage is a bittersweet success in one respect, however. It comes at a fraught time for US-China relations.

A Comac executive once told me that the company’s ultimate goal was to compete with Airbus and Boeing in their backyard. That would require obtaining a stamp of approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration, which is an unlikely development given the US administration’s current posture towards China.

With US officials already viewing Chinese chips, TikTok and other China-made products as national security threats, they are unlikely to tolerate Chinese-made aeroplanes flying Americans 30,000 feet above sea level.

Now that the C919 has shown its airworthiness, Comac and China as a whole are embarking on a far more difficult challenge: altering the so-called rules-based international order. Comac is trying to break into a long-standing aviation duopoly, while China hopes to turn a unipolar world order into a more multipolar one.

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Why it took China’s home-grown C919 plane 15 years to start flying passengers

Based on its track record, we would be remiss to question Comac’s commitment. In 2014, when Comac was struggling with repeated delays, President Xi Jinping told employees that their work was the cornerstone of China’s emergence as a real superpower. Giving up was not an option and would have been tantamount to a national failure.

In the end, the C919 isn’t just an aircraft. It represents the hopes and dreams of 1.4 billion Chinese people, exemplifying the nation’s transformation from a humiliated former giant to an assertive power that stands on an equal footing with the West. Any further predictions must grapple with that reality.

Stanley Chao has worked in China and the Asia-Pacific region for more than two decades and is the author of “Selling to China: A Guide for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses.”