Recently, Wan Gang, Minister of Science and Technology of China, said: China's first domestic large passenger plane C9 19 will make its first flight this year. According to media reports, although the launch time of C9 19 has been postponed repeatedly, since the final assembly of the first aircraft of C9 19 went off the assembly line, the project has steadily advanced on several main lines, such as system integration test, static test, on-board test and flight test preparation, and the first aircraft has entered the first flight preparation state.
As for whether C9 19 can obtain FAA airworthiness certificate, considering that the regional plane ARJ2 1 delivered last year has not obtained FAA airworthiness certificate, it is still unknown whether C9 19 will repeat the mistakes of ARJ2 1. In fact, whether C9 19 can obtain FAA airworthiness certificate has little influence on the research and development and future commercial operation of C9 19.
FAA and EASA airworthiness certificate
Airworthiness certificate refers to the certificate issued by the airworthiness authority to a civil aircraft according to the Provisions on Qualification Examination and Approval of Products and Parts of Civil Aircraft to prove that the aircraft is in a safe and available state. Airworthiness certificate is a ticket for large aircraft to enter the international market, and it is also a driving license to fly over other countries' airspace. The most influential ones are FAA in America and EASA in Europe. At present, ARJ2 1 has not obtained the airworthiness certificate issued by FAA.
American aviation safety supervision began with the Aviation Business Law passed in 1926, and in the following decades, it learned lessons from various accidents and formed a relatively perfect safety supervision system. For example, the standard of safety seats used to be able to resist 8G load, but later accidents proved that this index was not safe enough, so the FAA raised the standard to 16G. For another example, due to the defect of the cabin air pressure monitoring system in the aircraft, passengers were injured during the emergency descent of the aircraft, so the FAA revised the standard and improved the pressure monitoring system, which increased the safety of the aircraft and the manufacturing cost of the aircraft.
After decades of tempering and summing up the experience of various accidents, FAA has been communicating with manufacturers to improve the safety of aircraft, trying to ensure the airworthiness of aircraft, the competence of aviation personnel, the suitability of flight procedures and aviation operations, and improve the level of flight safety. It can be said that it is decades of continuous improvement and perfection that make FAA-certified aircraft generally have higher safety in theory.
At present, the FAA implements a three-level management model, and its organization is divided into three levels: headquarters, regional administration and local institutions. The Flight Standards Division, headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a decision-making and management department, whose main function is to formulate policies and regulations. Regional institutions and local institutions belong to the administrative departments.
Under the situation that the United States has almost monopolized the large commercial passenger aircraft in the western world, European countries are determined to integrate European technology and resources to jointly design and manufacture large commercial aircraft, and set up an aviation safety bureau similar to the United States Federal Aviation Administration (EASA), namely european aviation safety agency. The main responsibility of EASA is to draft civil aviation safety regulations and establish sustainable airworthiness standards for all types of aircraft, as well as safety standards related to aircraft design, manufacture and maintenance. Through the implementation of unified standards, European countries will not be piecemeal in the aviation industry, and all countries will work together to ensure the consistency of European manufacturers' products and aircraft safety, which not only implements unified aviation management and safety supervision in Europe, but also provides a basis for Airbus to compete with Boeing and other airlines in the United States.
As far as practice is concerned, the safety of new models that have been repeatedly improved and certified by FAA and EASA is still relatively high. For example, the fatal accident interval of Boeing 747 is 17358000 hours, and that of Boeing 757 is 13744000 hours. The interval between fatal accidents of Airbus A320 is 6.5438+0.405 million hours. In contrast, the time interval between fatal accidents of some classic aircraft (such as Il-76 and Tu 154) does not exceed 165438+ million hours.
Therefore, if C9 19 has obtained FAA or EASA airworthiness certificate, it means that western countries have endorsed the safety of C9 19, which means that they have obtained admission tickets to the international market.
The United States has deep pockets and perfect facilities. The picture shows Boeing 787 doing icing test in the hangar.
Airworthiness certificate is an industry barrier set by aviation powers.
On the one hand, airworthiness certificate is the endorsement and guarantee of aircraft safety by western aviation powers, and it is also the ticket to open the international aviation market. At the same time, in order to maintain its monopoly position in international civil aviation, airworthiness certificate often becomes a tool for western countries and aviation giants to cast industry barriers (Boeing participates in the formulation of FAA terms; Airbus participates in the formulation of EASA terms). Sometimes it even becomes a political game tool in the West. For example, Russia's Il -96 was refused to fly over European airspace by EASA in the name of security, and then Russia said that it would cut off European oil and gas if it did not lift the ban. Subsequently, EASA immediately stated that the Il -96 was safe and could fly over European airspace.
Taking ARJ2 1 as an example, the power, avionics system, power supply system, APU, high-lift system, hydraulic system, fuel system, air management system, landing gear system, engine vibration monitor, engine interface control device, main flight control system, cockpit control system and fire protection system of this aircraft are all purchased from abroad. It can be said that except the aircraft design and fuselage are made in China, other subsystems are purchased. However, it is such a domestic regional plane that is independently designed and manufactured by China (overall design, system integration), with parts purchased globally and assembled by Comac of China, and still cannot obtain the airworthiness certificate issued by FAA.
Obviously, from the technical point of view, because the subsystem is purchased in large quantities from abroad, ARJ2 1 has a good foundation in maturity and reliability. In addition, ARJ2 1 has been certified by the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Although China's CAAC has been adjusted in some places according to China's current national conditions and the development level of aviation industry, it still fully draws lessons from FAA in many aspects. There are even media reports that 90% of China's civil aviation regulations are copied from the FAA, and the scale of copying is very large, especially the technical regulations, which are almost intact when translated. On the one hand, this is a portrayal of the relative weakness of the domestic civil aviation industry, and it is also a tribute and recognition to the FAA's practice summary of paying a lot of money and blood for decades.
Shi, a member of the C9 19 expert advisory group of China Commercial Aircraft Corporation and former chief designer of ARJ2 1 aircraft, believes that China's civil aviation standards are equivalent to the FAA of the United States. Therefore, ARJ2 1 can pass CAAC certification and purchase a large number of parts from foreign manufacturers in different systems. In addition, the fact that there has been no accident since ARJ2 1 was put into operation shows that the failure of ARJ2 1 to obtain the airworthiness certificate issued by FAA is definitely due to political and commercial factors.
After all, since the United States returned to the Asia-Pacific strategy, Sino-US relations have not been harmonious. Moreover, American aviation giants certainly don't want a third competitor to grab the market with them. After all, the emergence and rise of Airbus made American aviation giants suffer heavy losses. If China, known as the "crusher of developed countries", enters this market originally monopolized by the West, China Airlines will once again take a slice of this market, which will have a great impact on the American aviation industry.
Obtaining FAA airworthiness certificate is of little significance to C9 19.
If China's passenger planes want to enter the international market, they can only serve domestic or low-cost airlines in Asia, Africa and Latin America like xinzhou 60 if they can't get FAA approval. But in fact, even if it is rejected by the FAA like ARJ2 1, the impact on C9 19 is actually not great.
As far as the research and development of C9 19 is concerned, the research and development of C9 19 is the will of the state and will not be stopped by any foreign forces. Even if the first flight of C9 19 is delayed repeatedly, at least from the public information, the country still attaches great importance to it and will not repeat the mistake of 10 because of the delay of the first flight. Whether the FAA will issue an airworthiness certificate to C9 19 in the future will not have any negative impact on the country's investment and attention to this project.
As far as commercial operation is concerned, even if it can only serve China and Asian, African and Latin American countries, this market is still very huge. By the beginning of 20 17, C9 19 had received 570 orders, most of which were from domestic customers. Moreover, according to China Commercial Aircraft Corporation's Annual Report on Civil Aircraft Market Forecast 20 16-2035, in the next 20 years, the delivery volume of various types of jet aircraft will reach 39,948, with a value of about 523 1 billion dollars, which will be used to replace retired passenger aircraft and support the development of the fleet. So C9 19 still has great potential in the domestic market.
To take a step back, even if C9 19 obtains the airworthiness certificate issued by FAA or EASA, European and American airlines may not give C9 19 many orders out of political correctness or trade protectionism. The most typical example is the Russian super sprayer-100.
The Super Jet-100 project is the first time that Russia has adopted the European airworthiness standard (CS-25) to develop a civil aircraft, and it has been approved by EASA as a civil aircraft product in type certificate. Moreover, in order to open up the European market, Su Huoyi and Italian Lenya Company jointly established Superjet International Company, and Italian Lenya Company also controlled 5 1% of the shares of the joint venture company.
You know, the Russian Foreign Investment Law stipulates that foreign interest groups are prohibited from holding more than 25% of the shares of Russian Aerospace and National Defense Corporation, while Italian Lenya Company holds 5 1% of the shares of the joint venture company. This is obviously the Russian government's attempt to make the aircraft meet western standards through international cooperation, and at the same time enhance its competitiveness in the international market through profit.
In addition, more than 60% of the components and systems of Super Jet-100 aircraft were outsourced to aviation manufacturing enterprises in North America and Western Europe, and suppliers from 35 countries including the United States, Canada, Germany and France participated in the project. However, even so, the super sprayer-100 still failed to cause a sensation in the international market. Although the super jet-100 has some shortcomings, it is also an important reason why western countries and their aviation giants suppress Russia in order to safeguard their own interests.
In third world countries, some African and South American countries recognize China CAAC certification, so it is of little significance to have FAA airworthiness certificate. In addition, unlike small commodities, the purchase of large aircraft is often linked to comprehensive national strength and the influence of big countries. Compared with some third world countries that were "tamed" by Europe and America in the past 200 years, even though China's economy has risen in recent years, its influence in some countries is still less than that of old colonial countries such as Britain and France, and the gap is even greater than that of the United States.
Therefore, the greatest significance of C9 19 is to develop a commercial airliner that can replace Boeing 737 and Airbus A320, hone the domestic aviation industry and cultivate a number of technical backbones, and learn from foreign advanced technologies as much as possible while cooperating with foreign manufacturers, so as to consolidate technology and talent technology for the future research and development of C929.
In other words, whether you can get the FAA airworthiness certificate and win the recognition of "foreign adults" is not as important as some people think. C9 19 is successful as long as it can train talents, accumulate technology, develop civil aviation industry and replace some imported Boeing and Airbus aircraft.
In addition, aircraft forensics only shows whether the aircraft can enter the market, whether it can survive and develop in the market, but also depends on the quality of the products themselves and perfect after-sales service. Compared with the FAA airworthiness certificate that some people value very much, whether Comac China can establish a strict quality assurance system and perfect after-sales service is the most important thing.
Author: Liu Tie