We have been facing"800 million shirts in exchange for a Boeing plane"It is not only a satire of China's technological strength, but also a merciless mockery of our ability to independently develop large passenger aircraft.
Due to China's lack of R&D strength in this field, it can only reluctantly hand over batch after batch of production orders to other countries. The question of procurement is equally perplexing, as when we are confronted with the monopolies of Western countries, we find ourselves unable to hold the bargaining power and can only passively accept the rules set by others.
Therefore, in 2007, the official launch of the C919 large passenger aircraft project has undoubtedly become a strong response to the difficulties of China's aviation industry.
Since the official launch of the project, it has been 17 years since the project was established, delivered, first test flight, and until today's mass production.
Behind this arduous process, hundreds of billions of funds have been invested, as well as the unremitting efforts of countless aviation researchers, many enterprises and institutions, and hundreds of cooperative users. We are deeply proud of this, which is not only the pride of the Chinese people, but also a remarkable achievement of the country's scientific and technological progress.
However, it is worth pointing out that in the field of C919, there have been many doubts about its existence, especially for its core component, the heart, if not"Chinese heart"How can it be called domestic?
According to the information publicly disclosed by Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, although the nose, fuselage, wings, keel beams and other key components of the C919 do come from independent domestic production, the localization rate has reached a high level of 60%. However, in the entire first chain link, there are still 16 Sino-foreign joint ventures involved. These companies provide the C919 with vital technical support such as avionics, flight control systems, communication and navigation.
As for the most critical power unit, the engine, it is supported by the LEAP-1C turbofan engine jointly invested and produced by two well-known companies in the United States and France.
Therefore, although the C919 is not completely domestic, there is no doubt that it reflects relatively mature domestic capabilities in some key components.
Prior to this, the United States had maliciously slandered the C919 as an "assembly model" and refused to issue an airworthiness license to it on this ground, but now, with the C919 obtaining airworthiness certification in more than 20 countries around the world and successfully winning orders worth more than 700 billion yuan, the rise of the first industry in China has been unstoppable.
On the other hand, their opponent, Boeing of the United States, is in frequent trouble, and the company has achieved a net loss of 22 percent in fiscal 2023US$4.2 billion, while also dealing with the severe challenge of the continued reduction of orders in the Chinese market. As for the international market, the C919 has begun to threaten its key customer base, gradually snatching away the international market space of Boeing's aviation business.
As a result, there are reports that Boeing has taken the initiative to turn to Raymond for help based on the risk of a €1.5 billion payout, preferring to bear huge financial losses and cut off the engine for the C919**. As a last resort, it may even take measures to remotely shut down the engine, so that the domestic large aircraft cannot be lifted into the air, and ensure that the market share of the United States domestic passenger aircraft can be stabilized.
According to public information, as early as 2011, China has launched the self-developed Yangtze CJ1000 series engine project. After years of unremitting efforts and overcoming difficulties, the project finally achieved a breakthrough.
It has been reported that by 2017, the key links of the Yangtze CJ1000 engine have been successfully ignited and operated; In May of the following year, the successful start-up of the entire machine was achieved. Since then, the CJ1000 engine has undergone numerous testing processes, including five-hour extreme braking tests on the ground and blade detachment tests, and its performance has reached or even surpassed that of the LEAP-1C engine built into the C919 body.
However, this small Yangtze CJ1000 engine is merely seen as a prelude. Yin Zeyong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, disclosed that the domestic Yangtze CJ2000 aero engine has completed the experiment and has been successful. This engine is oriented towards equipping a dual-aisle, long-range wide-body aircraft, i.e. as standard equipment for future domestic C929 engines. It has many advantages such as low fuel consumption, efficient combustion, low noise and high safety, and its performance is also significantly improved compared with the CJ1000 engine. It is worth mentioning that these two domestic engines have complete independent intellectual property rights, getting rid of the dilemma of being subject to European and American technology for a long time.
It is foreseeable that the replacement of China's large passenger aircraft with "domestic heart" is bound to become an inevitable trend in future development. As for whether it will be able to catch up with Boeing in terms of production and order volume in the future, we cannot give a clear answer for the time being. However, we are confident that we can ensure a high degree of autonomy and controllability of the flight safety level, provide reliable safety protection for state-owned assets, and at the same time eliminate the embarrassing situation of "800 million shirts in exchange for a Boeing plane" caused by the imbalance.
The deep-seated reason behind this lies not only in the increasing pressure exerted by the United States on China in the fields of science and technology, aviation, etc., but more importantly, the hard work and silent dedication of thousands of aviation practitioners in China who are brave enough to work hard day and night. We are well aware of such a truth: Only by relying on the strength of science and technology to strengthen the country and keep technology in our own hands can we truly promote the prosperity and strength of the country.