It is only by walking that the paths are traced, be they land, sea or sky, with the opportunity to open the horizon towards new routes and goals. It applies to all things: even to the flight. In this sense, the decision to develop a new airliner exerts a driving effect on the entire industrial sector, laying the foundations for the construction of a real aerospace hub.
The precedents, in recent history, are many and self-evident. One above all, the birth of Airbus. Fifty years ago, the American giant Boeing was skeptical of what it considered an unrealistic European project with little chance of success. Time, on the other hand, has made it one of the absolute protagonists (continental and not only) both in passenger transport and in space exploration.
And now it’s up to China.
It is obvious to remark as the choice to proceed with the construction of a original airliner, the COMAC C919, is the result of a precise political will. By allowing Beijing, on the one hand, to compete for the square with the current rulers of the sky, the Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 families; on the other hand, by further stimulating the already ravenous Asian economy, mindful of the fact that every dollar of Boeing’s production value would increase US GDP by as much as 2.3 dollars.
The C919 flew the skies for the first time on May 5, 2017, nine years after the approval of the project: demonstrating how much the development of a passenger aircraft is one of the greatest and most complex challenges that the aeronautical sector knows (despite, also in this case, the accelerated times of Beijing).
The demand for aircraft in this category, both for domestic routes and for international flights, is expected to be significant. According to estimates by Boeing and Airbus, 215 new airports will be built in China over the next 15 years. According to the studies prepared by COMAC itself, during the twenty-year period 2020-2039 the aircraft delivered will be 40,664, for a total value of 6 billion dollars. Not leaving this gigantic market to foreign production was a logical and consequential choice, considering the technological level reached by the Chinese in this field. Here too, looking at and stealthily borrowing Western technological and human resources, attracted to China by lavish fees and prospects.
Thus, if Europe becomes impoverished, in return the Celestial Empire is seething with activism: 36 universities and more than 200 industries have contributed to the development of the C919. In addition, around the project – which employs over 466,000 people, almost half a million – they are already numerous industrial parks have sprung up, with a percentage of Chinese aircraft components rapidly rising from 10% to 60%. And with consequent losses, ça va sans dire, for Western suppliers.
Because every year they will take at least 300 aircraft of its class, the objective of the COMAC C919 would be to represent a third, with a share of 8 billion per year (160 in the twenty years). The first order for five units was signed by China Eastern Airline on March 1, 2021, providing for the delivery of one aircraft within the year and that of the other four in the course of 2022. However, the vehicles will go to the subsidiary OTT Airlines (One Two Three Airlines), established in 2020 as a guinea pig for domestic jets, with a fleet of C919s and ARJ21s.
And the Chinese, in their usual way design of rampant enlargement, already include military versions of the C919, antisubmarine or radar patrol, such as the P-8 Neptune and E-7 Wedgetail.
Another channel concerns the development of the C929, the double-aisle aircraft being designed with the Russians. The agreement provides for the closure of the plane in 2021, the first flight in 2025 and deliveries in 2028: nevertheless, it seems to have taken over a certain reluctance on the part of Moscow, no longer so inclined to share its industrial patents.
In conclusion China wants to be present – and it is – even in the domain of the skies, candidate to become its record holder (will that also transpires from the choice of the initials C919, “9” in Chinese is considered a propitious number, a symbol of longevity and linked to the figure of the Emperor) . The real point is what the West wants to do. Merely watching as the Dragon literally puts wings on your feet? Run after him? Or react?
React by returning to investing massively in those sectors that are crucial for industrial development (defense in primis), capable of building around itself a highly qualified, profitable and prospectively cross-sectoral induced. From the Earth to the Moon, passing through the sky. A dimension in which Europe, and Italy in particular, must return to… fly.