COMAC C929 / COMAC C939 - Russian Participation

Russian aircraft manufacturers may take part in developing a new Chinese wide-body passenger plane Director General of the Ilyushin Aircraft Company Viktor Livanov told Interfax-AVN 16 May 2007. "Last December China adopted a large-scale civil aviation development program. Russian aircraft manufacturers are currently discussing their participation in fulfilling the program with their Chinese counterparts". According to him, first and foremost, the negotiations are focused on joint development and mass production of the future wide-body aircraft.

Russia and China entered the final phase in the negotiations on the creation of long-range plane project, RF Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov told journalists 10 October 2011 on the results of the 15th meeting of the Russian-Chinese commission for the preparation of regular meetings between the two countries' governments. "We've come to grips with discussing the project to create a long-haul wide-body plane," said Zhukov. "Our Chinese partners have taken a long time to consider if they should engage in cooperation with us, and now we are closely dealing with this."

The beginning of the work on the project was initiated by the signing of a memorandum between aircraft manufacturers in April 2012, marked the representative of Russian corporation.

Russia and China will complete the design for a new long-haul aircraft by year end, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said 23 October 2013. During a visit to the Irkutsk aviation hub in the East Siberian region, Rogozin said the design for a new wide-body, long-haul aircraft "should be completed by the end of 2013," and the business plan is currently being prepared.

"By the end of this year we should have a high degree of readiness to have a conversation with manufacturers," Interfax news agency quoted the official as saying. Rogozin highlighted the necessity for both China and Russia to build such an aircraft, urging the two partners to gain market share currently dominated by Boeing and Airbus in the long-distance air travel market.

Russia has all the necessary technologies but lacked large-scale serial production ability, while China has ambition to acquire the necessary competencies, as well as a huge market. The partnership on the airliner project "has been given real direction," Rogozin once said.

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang on 25 October 2013 urged China and Russia to promote the joint development of long-range, wide-body aircraft and heavy-lift helicopters. Wang made the call at the 17th meeting of the joint commission for the regular meetings of heads of government of China and Russia, which he and Rogozin co-chaired in Xi'an, capital city of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

Wide-body aircraft, developed by United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) and Chinese aircraft manufacturers, was planned to enter the market in the years 2023-2025, according to ITAR–TASS report on 13 February 2014. Technical configuration of a new wide-bodied aircraft was not yet fully defined, specified in UAC. The work of Russian and Chinese experts on feasibility of the project study must be completed in the coming months, after the decision on the possibility of launching joint development of new aircraft. Now, it is supposed to cooperate for the entire cycle of creation and maintenance of a new liner, from the design and development to the production and post-sales support.

"We are rather interested in the niche of long-haul wide-body aircraft, the press service of UAC quotes the statement of Michael Pogosyan, UAC President of the Corporation, made on the eve of the opening of the exhibition Singapore Airshow 2014. But we must study the market must carefully and clearly define the level of technologies, needed not just for entering the market, but for entering a very competitive market with the product, which provides a qualitatively new solutions".

The leaders of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation and the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China signed an agreement to cooperate on the development of a new wide-body long-range passenger airliner, the Russian company said in a statement 20 May 2014. “The combined efforts of COMAC and UNAC on the joint creation of a new series of long-range planes will bring cooperation between the two countries in the aircraft industry to a completely different level,” UNAC CEO Mikhail Pogosyan said, according to the statement.

The memorandum on cooperation was the result of two years of consultations between Russian and Chinese experts. The new project will be one of the largest international collaborations in the aircraft industry, as well as in the hi-tech fields of both countries. The new plane is expected to eventually occupy a significant share of the international market.

A Russian delegation led by President Vladimir Putin arrived in China on 20 May 2014 for an official visit that was expected to result in the signing of a large number of documents, including bilateral, intergovernmental, inter-departmental and corporate agreements.

The Kommersant newspaper reported on 19 May 2014 that Russia and China were set to boost their joint technological ties by cooperating on the joint design of a wide-body long-range airliner. "This project [wide-body, long-range aircraft] is to compete with American and European-manufactured aircraft," Kommersant said, citing a source.

"China is interested in building at least 1,000 airplanes of this kind. And if everything goes smoothly, then in perspective we will set up a joint venture that could compete with Airbus or Boeing, for example. We are ready to purchase these planes to meet our own demands," the source told Kommersant. As expected, UAC and COMAC signed a memorandum 24 May 2014 to jointly develop the aircraft. UAC's Pogosyan says that Russian-Chinese wide-body long-range aircraft will not be a copy of previous products Pogosyan says that the aircraft's target markets will be Russia, the CIS, and Southeast Asia, and that it may get up to 10% of the global market by 2032; Russia and China may also cooperate to develop the aircraft's engine.

Russia has reached an agreement with China on the joint construction of a long-range, wide-body passenger plane and a modern helicopter, with a cargo capacity of up to 15 tons, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said 06 June 2014. Russian Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Yuri Slyusar in turn stressed that the volume of investment in the project was estimated at $7-$8 billion.

The June 2016 visit of the Russian president in China was one of the most successful Russian-Chinese summits in terms of practical content. One key joint endeavor will focus on designing a wide-body aircraft. The agreement helps to assure Russia "that it will take part in this extremely important and large-scale Chinese project," according to Vasily Kashin, senior research fellow at the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies of the National Research University Higher School of Economics explained. "In its turn, this could be a decisive factor with regard to Russia's civil aircraft industry."

Specialists began developing a PD-35 engine for a wide-body long-haul aircraft of the Russian-Chinese project CR929, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports with reference to a representative of the United Engine -Building Corporation (UEC). To complete work on the engine is planned in 2025. Today the advanced technical and technological directions of the project are already defined. In turn, computer calculations and experiments confirmed the attainability of the given parameters. The enterprises of Russia and China participate in the cooperation. To consolidate efforts, a joint venture was established on June 25, 2016. Later, at the air show in the Chinese Zhuhai, a model of a new liner with a capacity of 280 passengers in the basic configuration and a range of up to 12,000 km was presented. According to the agreements, the joint engineering center for the design of the aircraft will be located in Russia, and the headquarters in Shanghai, where the final assembly will take place. Experts believe that the future CR929 aircraft may be 15% more efficient than the  Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus 350. Earlier, Russian President  Vladimir Putin reported that Russian engine builders began developing the PD-35 engine independently for the new passenger wide-body aircraft.