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The following news is 15 months old.
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AVIC's MA700 Program Faces Certification Challenges
By Bradley Perrett, AVIATION WEEK | Oct. 08, 2015
Obtaining Western airworthiness acceptance is looming as a key difficulty for the AVIC MA700 turboprop airliner program.
The MA700 has entered detail design, a stage that the manufacturer hopes will be completed this year, though it could stretch into 2016. However, there is no clear path for obtaining FAA or European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) recognition of the oversight of that work by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
Nearly two years after the program's launch, the schedule is unchanged. A first flight is due in June 2017, with first delivery in 2019.
Program executives point out that AVIC has an important advantage that COMAC has lacked in the C919 program: experience gained in developing and supporting similar aircraft. Prior to the MA700, the manufacturer made the 60-seat MA60 and MA600 versions of the Y-7 turboprop, which was an aircraft based on the Antonov An-24. By contrast, COMAC began developing its second aircraft type -- the C919 -- eight years before the February 2016 entry-into-service now expected for its first aircraft, the ARJ21 regional jet.
Delivering the MA700 to a customer in 2019 will not be easy, industry officials say.
To sell the MA700 in many markets -- including most of the large ones-- AVIC will need endorsement of the CAAC type certificate by the FAA or EASA. But the FAA and CAAC have not yet completed a program, reliant on the long-overdue ARJ21, that is intended to result in the U.S. agency recognizing its Chinese counterpart's capabilities in this area. Meanwhile, the CAAC is already overseeing detail design on the MA700, raising the question of whether its assessments can be retrospectively accepted by the foreign agencies.
The C919 is in the same hole, but deeper. The CAAC has had to support C919 development over the past 4-5 years without that FAA recognition.
The first version of the MA700 will seat 78 passengers at 79 cm (31 in.) pitch, compared with 68 passengers for the ATR 72 and 74 passengers for the Bombardier Q400. That is an advantage, because many operators of turboprop airliners are calling for larger aircraft. AVIC eventually intends to offer an MA700 version with at least 90 seats, but plans now say that it will produce a 60-seater, which last year was mentioned as a 50-seat aircraft. The government has imposed that sequence on Avic because a 90-seater would compete with the ARJ21, which has the same capacity.
Perhaps 20% as many MA700s could be sold in the 60-seat version as in the standard length, a program official says. The shorter version will better-suit operations from high altitudes as well as from certain airports, such as many in Indonesia, with short runways surrounded by tall hills.
Program managers are sure that they have a strong concept in the MA700, partly because of its seat count and new Pratt & Whitney Canada PW150C engine. Dong Jianhong, chief designer, says the aircraft's price will be lower than competitors' offerings. The manufacturer is expecting economic benefits from fabricating the aircraft in China and using large structural parts instead of assemblies built from many pieces.
The big question -- as officials involved in the MA700 know well -- is whether the manufacturer can execute the program well enough.
AVIC claims orders for 185 MA700s from 11 customers, but Chinese state manufacturers tend to loosely refer to options and other nonbinding deals as orders.
========
AVIC's MA700 Program Faces Certification Challenges
By Bradley Perrett, AVIATION WEEK | Oct. 08, 2015
Obtaining Western airworthiness acceptance is looming as a key difficulty for the AVIC MA700 turboprop airliner program.
The MA700 has entered detail design, a stage that the manufacturer hopes will be completed this year, though it could stretch into 2016. However, there is no clear path for obtaining FAA or European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) recognition of the oversight of that work by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
Nearly two years after the program's launch, the schedule is unchanged. A first flight is due in June 2017, with first delivery in 2019.
Program executives point out that AVIC has an important advantage that COMAC has lacked in the C919 program: experience gained in developing and supporting similar aircraft. Prior to the MA700, the manufacturer made the 60-seat MA60 and MA600 versions of the Y-7 turboprop, which was an aircraft based on the Antonov An-24. By contrast, COMAC began developing its second aircraft type -- the C919 -- eight years before the February 2016 entry-into-service now expected for its first aircraft, the ARJ21 regional jet.
Delivering the MA700 to a customer in 2019 will not be easy, industry officials say.
To sell the MA700 in many markets -- including most of the large ones-- AVIC will need endorsement of the CAAC type certificate by the FAA or EASA. But the FAA and CAAC have not yet completed a program, reliant on the long-overdue ARJ21, that is intended to result in the U.S. agency recognizing its Chinese counterpart's capabilities in this area. Meanwhile, the CAAC is already overseeing detail design on the MA700, raising the question of whether its assessments can be retrospectively accepted by the foreign agencies.
The C919 is in the same hole, but deeper. The CAAC has had to support C919 development over the past 4-5 years without that FAA recognition.
The first version of the MA700 will seat 78 passengers at 79 cm (31 in.) pitch, compared with 68 passengers for the ATR 72 and 74 passengers for the Bombardier Q400. That is an advantage, because many operators of turboprop airliners are calling for larger aircraft. AVIC eventually intends to offer an MA700 version with at least 90 seats, but plans now say that it will produce a 60-seater, which last year was mentioned as a 50-seat aircraft. The government has imposed that sequence on Avic because a 90-seater would compete with the ARJ21, which has the same capacity.
Perhaps 20% as many MA700s could be sold in the 60-seat version as in the standard length, a program official says. The shorter version will better-suit operations from high altitudes as well as from certain airports, such as many in Indonesia, with short runways surrounded by tall hills.
Program managers are sure that they have a strong concept in the MA700, partly because of its seat count and new Pratt & Whitney Canada PW150C engine. Dong Jianhong, chief designer, says the aircraft's price will be lower than competitors' offerings. The manufacturer is expecting economic benefits from fabricating the aircraft in China and using large structural parts instead of assemblies built from many pieces.
The big question -- as officials involved in the MA700 know well -- is whether the manufacturer can execute the program well enough.
AVIC claims orders for 185 MA700s from 11 customers, but Chinese state manufacturers tend to loosely refer to options and other nonbinding deals as orders.
