Fuselage assembly ceremony Image Credit:COMAC Chinese COMAC has begun the structural assembly of the first C919 airliner prototype at the...
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| Fuselage assembly ceremony Image Credit:COMAC |
Chinese COMAC has begun the structural assembly of the first C919 airliner prototype at the newly established Manufacturing and Final Assembly Center of Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC).
The butt joint of forward and mid fuselage sections were started on Sept 19.
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| COMAC C919 Mid-aft fuselage Image Credit:COMAC |
The airframe structure of C919 aircraft mainly includes the sections and associated components of nose, fwd fuselage, mid fuselage-center wing, outer wing, aileron, mid-aft fuselage, aft fuselage, vertical stabilizer, horizontal stabilizer and movable surfaces, which are designed by the Research and Development Center of COMAC, manufactured respectively by AVIC Chengdu Aircraft Industrial (Group) Co., Ltd (CAC), AVIC Jiangxi Hongdu Aviation Industry Group Co., Ltd, AVIC Xi'an Aircraft Industry (Group) Co., Ltd. (XAC), Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC), Harbin Aircraft Industry (Group) Co., Ltd. (HAIG), Aerospace Research Institute of Special Materials and Processing Technology, and Zhejiang Xizi Aviation Industry Co., Ltd., and assembled by COMAC Manufacturing and Final Assembly Center.
C919 will be the largest commercial airliner designed and built in China since the defunct Shanghai Y-10.e.
It is a short-medium range commercial airliner featuring economy class layout of 168 seats or hybrid class layout with 156 seats. The basic version will have range of 4,075 km, while the enhanced version can fly to 5,555 km. The airframe is is designed for 90,000 flying hours/30 calendar years.
The C919 will compete against Airbus A320, Boeing 737 and Russian MS-21, ending the Airbus-Boeing duopoly.
