COMAC is broadening the industrial base for its C929 widebody as the 290-seat aircraft remains in detailed design. Suppliers in China are advancing work on composite structures, the midsection fuselage, avionics and flight-control components, while the programme’s planned entry into service remains in the mid-2030s. No target date has been disclosed for the aircraft’s first flight.
Cotesa China has completed process validation for a five-metre-class composite frame intended to support C929 development and potential series production. Huarui Aviation has progressed from preliminary supplier selection to a main contract with COMAC Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing for the midsection fuselage. Its Hangzhou production line is planned to deliver 45 shipsets annually, with each shipset involving more than 6,000 part types and over 165,000 individual pieces.
AVIC Xi’an Aircraft has secured four work packages covering the rear-fuselage forward section, slats, ailerons and winglets, and is conducting trial-component development and validation. Aviage Systems, the GE Aerospace–AVIC joint venture, has signed a letter of intent for core avionics processing. Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber, Weihai Guangwei Composites and Jiangsu Hengshen are progressing carbon-fibre, prepreg and structural work for the programme.
The baseline C929 is designed for 290 seats and a 12,000-kilometre range, with published layouts spanning 282 to 440 seats. COMAC is targeting approximately 51% composite content, compared with about 12% on the C919. Propulsion is planned around AECC’s CJ-2000 high-bypass turbofan, which remains in engineering tests and has not entered China’s airworthiness-certification process.