COMAC C919

The airframer initially planned for composites usage on the C919 to
be around 20%, but that could now drop to less than 10%, to avoid
complications and possible delays, which the five-year-old airframer may
not be experienced enough to handle, said sources familiar with the
project.

Comac has yet to ascertain the material mix it will use for its
150-seat jet, and has "two workflow lines". One line will work on a more
traditional design with the aluminum-lithium alloy, while the other on
the wider use of composites. If composites prove too challenging, the
company can quickly shift to a more traditional approach.

Comac will miss a target to fly its C919 158-seat narrowbody airliner
in 2014, industry sources familiar with the Chinese program tell
Aviation Week.
The first flight now is scheduled for the second
quarter of 2015, says one industry source with detailed knowledge of the
program.
According to the new plan, Comac will roll out the
aircraft in December 2014, says the source.The manufacturer still is
aiming to achieve its target of a first delivery in 2016—but only just.
The specific aim is now December of that year.
The first flight has been delayed by up to a year from a previous, unannounced target of June 2014.
Program
managers had scheduled at least two years for flight testing. They now
have about 18 months for testing, closer to the time allocated for
flight tests by Western manufacturers.
The C919’s new schedule
more closely matches the timetable for its engine. The CFM Leap-1C
engine is due to be certified in June 2015, although the Civil Aviation
Administration of China could permit C919 flight testing before the
engine is certified.
The first Leap-1C should go into testing in the fall of this year, or at least no later than the fourth quarter.
Comac, a government agency registered as a company, made the decision to reschedule months ago, say three industry sources.
The
delay is no surprise. The C919, launched in 2008, began to miss
schedule targets as early as the supplier selection and contracting
stage.

The C919 iron bird, a ground rig on which systems are tested, is finally being fitted, at first to trial mechanical and hydraulic systems; by mid-2014 it will be fully operational with all systems, says an official. As recently as a month ago nothing was mounted, a strong sign of slow development.

Perhaps comparable with inexperience and the engineering shortage is the problem of Comac's governmental culture. Delegation is not well practiced in the Chinese state, and Comac managers often prefer to push decisions to their superiors. Groups working on disparate C919 systems are not always interacting as well as they should be with each other. Last year Comac acted on that problem by appointing managers with responsibility across several systems. Avic, an older organization, suffers from the same culture, but Comac was supposed to be more modern. Insiders say it is worse, because the C919 is a national and therefore political project.

The center fuselage section of COMAC's #C919 is now ready at XAC. pic.twitter.com/roNHMlw7TG

— Romain Guillot (@GuillotRomain) 22 Août 2014