China's Comac C919 Begins to take Form

[Mike W]

The cynic in mean wonders how much knowledge gleaned from the A320 assembly will find it's way into this beast. Yes, even though there's bound to be a plethora of proprietary agreements relating to it (the 320)

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/flightblogger/2009/09/chinas-comac-c919-begins-to-ta.html

[NickN]

The range comparison puts the performance of the C919 slightly below that of the comparable narrowbody offerings from Airbus and Boeing

I am assuming the price of the aircraft will be less than the Boeing and Airbus to give reason for someone purchasing it?

[Mike W]

I am assuming the price of the aircraft will be less than the Boeing and Airbus to give reason for someone purchasing it?

Try this piece from Airways Aviation News. It seems in some ways, nothing has changed from the old days. Talks about both the C919 and the ARJ21

http://www.airwaysaviationnews.com/1/post/2009/09/china-must-abolish-political-agenda-on-aircraft-programs.html

China must abolish its political agenda on aircraft development programs

China was recently grabbing the media headlines with its ARJ21 "Xiang Feng" (Flying Phoenix) as well as its Comac C919 aircraft development programs, but its political agenda and incompetence must be abolished in order to succeed in entering the global aircraft manufacturing industry. Airways Aviation News cautions.

The Chinese government claimed that the ARJ21 is the first Chinese airliner based on its sole resouces and designs, and that it will be an innovative design.

However, the unconvenient fact remains that its fuselage and empennage have used the original McDonnell Douglas tooling for license production of the MD90-30T Trunkliner. In addition, its wings are designed by Russian Antonov.
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