News out of China yesterday says "China's C919 plane to roll off assembly lines this year", as the basic assembly has been completed. In my opinion, China's moving into the commercial large aircraft market will be another market place wherein China will be a major competitor, especially as China itself has such a large large projected market need.
English.news.cn 2015-02-23 13:47:55
SHANGHAI, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- China's C919 large passenger aircraft will roll off assembly lines this year, the manufacturer announced on Monday.
The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China has completed basic assembly of the aircraft, the company said.
Earlier this month, the C919's vertical fin and the back end of the rear fuselage were delivered to the state-owned aircraft maker from domestic manufacturers.
The company has secured orders for 450 C919 planes from 18 customers.
With 168-seat and 156-seat layouts, the C919 will compete with Boeing and Airbus in the medium-range aircraft sector.
The C919's first test flight is planned for this year.
China will become the world's largest domestic aviation market in the next decade, an Airbus forecast said.
The country will need more than 5,300 new passenger aircraft and freighters between 2014 and 2033, with a total market value of 820 billion U.S. dollars or 17 percent of total global demand, in the next 20 years, the forecast said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2015-02/23/c_134012706.htm
But, right now, it will not be an "all China Airplane", as one can see with a picture that has been released which details item/system manufacturers.
(http://s15.postimg.org/6t7tnh5aj/China_C919_Screen_Shot_2015_02_24_at_3_27_18_PM.png)
Here is a fair amount of general detail on China's C919 Airliner, some of which is provided by Dennis Scott, a British aeronautical engineer, and assistant chief designer at the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac). This article also has some discussion on China's continuing move into the commercial aircraft engine markets.
AINonline
Comac Designer Reports on C919 Progress
by Chris Pocock - February 10, 2015, 9:00 AM
China's C919 airliner will roll out and perform taxi tests before the end of this year, but the first flight will likely not take place until 2016, according to Dennis Scott, assistant chief designer at the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac). Speaking at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London last week, Scott, who is a British aeronautical engineer, issued new details on the program, as well as on China's plan to produce commercial aircraft engines. A veteran of many Western aerospace programs, Scott joined Comac in 2011 to advise senior leadership on Western development methodologies and organization.
The wing-to-fuselage join for the prototype C919 took place in December, and the static and fatigue test articles now follow the prototype down the production line, Scott reported. Comac completed structural tests to validate the design a year ago; like Comac's ARJ21 regional airliner, nearly all of the structure consists of domestically produced parts. Avionics and system integration for the C919 has started, and Honeywell has begun translating the approved control laws into fly-by-wire software. The cockpit layout and sidestick controllers "follow the Airbus philosophy," Scott noted. A second assembly line for the C919 is being built on reclaimed land at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport, where plans call for construction of a fifth runway dedicated to flight test for Comac.
More: http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/aerospace/2015-02-10/comac-designer-reports-c919-progress