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China’s C919 passenger jet to come in different sizes, and AI will help optimise the design
- New addition to home-grown C919 narrowbody airliner series will add nearly 50 seats to maximum capacity as Beijing keeps Boeing and Airbus in its long-term sights
- But with only two deliveries so far this year, production capacity limitations mean some orders will take several years to fulfil
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Just a few months after China’s home-grown C919 passenger jet completed its maiden commercial flight, the plane’s maker says it intends to build an expanded series of the narrowbody airliner.
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“The aircraft will include shortened and extended versions, with seating classes spanning 130 to 240 seats,” said He Dongfeng, chairman of the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac).
The current version of the C919 can seat 156-192.
Additionally, 5G, big data, new energy and artificial intelligence will all be used to optimise the planes technologically, He said, speaking on Sunday at the Pujiang Innovation Forum in Shanghai.
However, no timetable was given for the upgrades. So far, only two C919s have been delivered since May. And it is unclear how many orders have actually been placed, as information has been inconsistent.
The order count given by He on Sunday was 1,061. But in January, Comac deputy general manager Zhang Yijin was quoted by state media thepaper.cn as saying that more than 1,200 orders had been placed, while Shanghai authorities were also cited as saying 1,035 orders had been received from 32 clients.
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