Sino-Russian Widebody Jet to Use Self-developed Engines

Rostec State Corporation, the Russian industrial conglomerate co-developing a long-haul widebody aircraft with China, has said the two countries will develop their own engines for the project, with the apparent longer-term aim of breaking the duopoly enjoyed by General Electric and Rolls-Royce.

Victor Kladov, director of Rostec's international cooperation and regional policy, said the development and manufacture of an engine for the planned 280-seat widebody jet, known as the C929, is a top priority.

"Only China and Russia will be the manufacturers of the engine," he said, and "will try our best to churn out a best-class engine, to support this aeroplane [project]."

China and Russia have lofty ambitions for the widebody jet, which is being designed to have a range of 12,000 kilometres.

Shanghai-based Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) and Russian companies including aircraft assembler United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) and Rostec set up a 50-50 joint venture last year to develop the long-haul passenger plane, with deliveries targeted at beginning in 2025.

The global long-haul aero engine market is currently dominated by GE and Rolls-Royce.

China's answer to Airbus, Boeing completes Shanghai maiden flight

"We don't entirely rule out possible cooperation with GE and Rolls-Royce, but even if they were to be invited to participate in the development, it would only be at the early stage," Kladov said.

Comac's initial efforts at building a large commercial aeroplane have proved a somewhat convoluted process, after it took eight years to launch the smaller 168-seat single-aisle C919, which has a range of up to 5,556km.

The narrow-body jet made its maiden flight in early May and has yet to set a definitive time frame for deliveries.

The government has spent dozens of billions of dollars buying key components for the C919, including its engines and avionics systems, from 15 international companies including GE and Honeywell.

There is a domestic aero engine project “CJ-1000” which is designed for C919 in China. In order to ensure CJ-1000 to complete airworthiness certification in 2025, the time of each technical research of CJ1000 is very urgent. As the OEM of CJ-1000, AECC Commercial Aircraft Engine Co., Ltd will co-organized “Commercial Aero Engine Shanghai International Forum 2017” in Jiaxing on December 5th - 6th, 2017.

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