"China's Aviation Sector Will Be Incomplete Without Developing Its Own Civil Aircraft Industry"

China is getting into the large commercial aircraft business, announcing plans to roll the first such airplane off the assembly line in 2018.

"We've seen tremendous market needs -- both civilian and military -- for large planes in the years ahead," said Liu Gaozhuo, president of the China Aviation Industry Corp I. He said China needs to make large transport and passenger planes to meet ever surging demands for air services. Liu's company is a major producer of military and civilian aircraft in China and he's not shy about saying China doesn't want to hand the civil aircraft manufacturing market over to the likes of Airbus and Boeing.

Aviation expert Zhou Jisheng agrees. He told the People's Daily, "China is now able to make large mainline aircraft. On top of designing, China can also produce and manage mainline aircraft after cooperation with McDonnell Douglas on [the] MD90. This problem has been solved."

The sobs you just heard are coming from Chicago, Paris and Bonn. Boeing, for instance, projects China will need some 2,300 new aircraft to meet its civil fleet needs over the next ten years. China's Liu estimated his country would have to lay out more than $100 billion to buy aircraft from the US and EU manufacturers.

"But China's aviation sector will be incomplete without developing its own civil aircraft industry," Liu told the People's Daily. "Neither could China elevate itself as an aviation power if it does not develop large aircraft by itself."

There is, of course, a defense component to this argument. Civil aircraft are easily transformed into troop transports and military cargo aircraft. With a little more work, they can become AWACs and CNC platforms, as well as aerial refueling tankers.

Liu was confident. "Three years ago, when I announced ARJ21 (China's new 70-90 seat regional jet, which went into production last month), everybody asked me how could I manage to sell it since the world's leading regional jet makers, like Canada's Bombardier Inc and Brazil's Embraer Aircraft Industry Co, are already there," Liu said.

How will he do it? Liu says it's not that complicated a question.

"Because we offer regional jets of the best quality but at a price and operational cost lower than foreign counterparts," he said. "More importantly, we provide products that most suit Chinese market needs."

More sobs from Sao Paulo and Montreal.

Even the Chinese admit they've been trying to develop a civil fleet for more than three decades -- and those efforts have failed. Either the planes were flops or, when they weren't China ended up without the "intellectual rights" to produce them. "In developing large aircraft, we'll count on ourselves so we'll own the intellectual property rights, meanwhile we will seek international co-operation."

FMI: www.fas.org/nuke/guide/china/contractor/cac.htm