Chinese aircraft manufacturer COMAC exhibited a model of its proposed C929 passenger aircraft at the Farnborough International Airshow, which opened on July 22.
Development of the 280-seat long-range wide-body jet began nearly a decade ago as a Russian-Chinese joint venture. The contract was signed between Russia’s United Aircraft Company (UAC) and COMAC during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to China in 2014. It is seen as an attempt to reduce Moscow’s reliance on Western aircraft and position the two companies as global competitors to Boeing and Airbus.
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While there is no official confirmation that Russia has been scrapped, media outlets have noticed that there is no mention of Russia in the project brochures and the “R” in the original model name C has been dropped. [China] R [Russia] Unit 929 has been removed. The BBC quoted an anonymous representative for the Chinese company as confirming that COMAC is now working solely on the project.
The partnership was plagued with problems almost from the start: there were disagreements over how to divide revenues from the sale of aircraft, and China refused to allow Russia to share in the revenues from the sale of aircraft in China. After Western sanctions were introduced following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, COMAC replaced almost all of its Russian parts with German and American alternatives, and began working with Rolls-Royce and General Electric on engine development.
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Still, Russia remained bullish on the aircraft program. Former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov acknowledged that Russian participation in the project had decreased in 2022, but then-Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said Russia might withdraw as a partner but would continue to supply parts.
As previously reported, Russia’s plan to replace 1,000 Western aircraft with domestically produced aircraft by 2030 is looking increasingly unlikely. Russian civil airlines are eager to get the C929, or a similar aircraft, with a range of 12,000 km.
The only plane Russia has in its inventory that comes close to this capability is the Ilyushin Il-96, which entered service in 1992, and Russia struggles to maintain it, along with most of its current civilian fleet.
The C(R) 929 was Russia’s first attempt to develop a wide-body jet since the Soviet era, but despite claims of “no-holds-barred” cooperation between Moscow and Beijing, that effort appears to be over.
