China preps plane research renewal after C919’s first year in the air

With its C919 recently finishing its first year of commercial flights, China is amassing more investment into aviation research with a new capital fund

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After a year of flights, China’s C919 commercial jet has paved the way for more developments in the country’s aviation industry. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 6:03pm, 17 Jun 2024Updated: 4:41am, 18 Jun 2024

Over a year after the commercial debut of its home-grown C919 narrowbody jet, China is set to plough more resources into its aviation sector, with a new research fund established to spur the development of new widebody planes and expand the domestic production of essential parts.

On Friday, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Natural Science Foundation agreed to move capital into a joint fund for aircraft research. The authorities did not disclose the size of the fund, but industry insiders have made low-end estimates of several billion yuan.

Filling its airspace with its own planes and reducing foreign sourcing for advanced components like engines and avionics have been decades-long priorities for Beijing, and the launch of the C919 under the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) was a milestone moment in the pursuit of those goals.

The new fund, building off this initial success, comes shortly after the country established its largest-ever investment pool for semiconductor research.

“The fund’s focus on basic research can be a sign Beijing has realised that, even with the launch of the C919, China needs to lay a more solid foundation … to close the gap with the West in making bigger jets,” said Li Hanming, an aviation analyst and founder of a transport consultancy which operates in the United States.

“It’s a whole new level if you aim to progress from the C919 to bigger models with comparable capabilities to [Boeing’s] 787 and 777 or [Airbus’] 350 and 330 series,” he added.