Comac C919

China is trying to break into a $US1.4 trillion market that has been virtually owned by the duopoly of Chicago-based Boeing and Toulouse, France-based Airbus, since the formation of the European aerospace group more than four decades ago. The C919, which relies heavily on equipment and systems from North American and European suppliers, would compete in the lucrative medium-range market dominated by the ubiquitous Airbus's A320 and Boeing's 737.

Comac has announced 785 orders for the C919, almost all from Chinese airlines.

​Comac also has an order for the jet from GE Capital Aviation Services, an aircraft and engine leasing company. GE is one of C919's contractors, supplying onboard maintenance and flight-data recording systems through a joint venture with Aviation Industry Corp. of China. The plane's engines come from CFM International, GE's joint venture with Safran Aircraft Engines. Other suppliers include Honeywell International Inc. and United Technologies Corp.

"C919"is the short form of trunk liner code for "COMAC919". COMAC is the acronym of the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. The letter "C" is the first letter of both "COMAC" and "China". It indicates that this trunk liner program is the will of China and her people. It is a short-medium range commercial trunk liner that can claim indigenous intellectual property. Its all-economy class layout entails 168 seats, and the hybrid class layout 156 seats. The basic version is designed to cover a range of 4,075 km, while the enhanced version can stretch to 5,555 km. Such designs may satisfy the operating demands for different routes. Its economic life is designed to be 90,000 flying hours/30 calendar years.

The C919 is a collection of parts supplied by the same companies that supplied the Boeing Dreamliner. But they held back their best technology from Comac after being forced into Chinese joint ventures and wanting to protect their intellectual property, several analysts say

“We used to believe that it was better to buy than to build, better to rent than to buy,” President Xi Jinping of China told workers during a recent visit here. “We need to spend more on researching and manufacturing our own airliners.”

China’s investment in civilian aircraft manufacturing is enormous. The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, better known as Comac, unveiled the extent of its activities for the first time on Thursday, showing off a complex of more than 110 buildings.