China’s First Large Commercial Aircraft Will Have
Open-Architecture Avionics
Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd (COMAC) announced
Monday that GE Aviation Systems and AVIC Systems, the partners to a
proposed AVIC GE joint venture, have been selected to provide the
avionics core processing system, display system and on-board
maintenance system for the newly launched C919 single-aisle
aircraft. The AVIC GE joint venture will support COMAC for avionics
integration for the C919.

C919 Artist's Rendering
The public signing of the Letter of Intent for the C919 avionics
selection was attended by senior management from GE, AVIC and
COMAC. AVIC and GE are forming the new joint venture company to
develop and market integrated avionics systems to the global
commercial aerospace industry, and in particular the avionics
systems for the C919.
“China is the world’s fastest-growing aviation
market and we need to ensure GE and the United States are part of
this growth,” said John Rice, Vice Chairman of GE. “Our
participation helps GE to grow high-tech jobs and capabilities,
while serving the aviation market with the latest commercial
technology. The C919 program will support hundreds of jobs in US,
China and the UK.”

The C919 modular avionics system provided by the proposed AVIC
GE joint venture will be the central information system and
backbone of the airplane’s networks and electronics and will
host the airplane’s avionics, maintenance and utility
functions. The system replaces dozens of traditional, standalone
computers fitted to aircraft flying today, benefiting in weight
savings, improved reliability and reduced operating cost.
"We are building a long-term partnership through the joint
venture and will provide the C919 with advanced commercial
technologies and products for its avionics systems," said Zhang
Xinguo, AVIC vice president. "Although this joint venture is based
in China, we anticipate expanding our customer market to the U.S.
and other global markets as we work together to achieve mutual
business success."
“The C919 will be more advanced than current operating
commercial air transport aircraft of the same size. It will use
between 12% and 15% less fuel, and help reduce carbon emissions,"
said Zhang Qingwei, Chairman, Commercial Aircraft Corporation of
China. "The GE AVIC open systems architecture avionics enables
integration of third-party applications with high integrity and
performance.”
With this announcement, the proposed AVIC GE joint venture
becomes a key supplier for China’s first large commercial
aircraft, including supporting COMAC for avionics integration. The
integrated avionics systems that GE AVIC will provide for the C919
include:
- Open-architecture, integrated modular avionics core processing
system,
- Flight deck large-area display system,
- On-board maintenance system, and the
- Flight recording system
“The immediate focus of our joint venture is to jointly
offer the best, competitive solutions for the COMAC C919 and we are
very happy with this successful outcome,” said Lorraine
Bolsinger, president and CEO for GE Aviation Systems. “The
C919 allows the joint venture to build upon our extensive
open-architecture avionics capabilities and to provide our
customers with some of the most advanced commercial technology in
the world.”
GE Aviation and AVIC recently announced the agreement to form a
new joint venture company to develop and market integrated avionics
systems for commercial aircraft customers.