DTN News: Comac - China's Challenge To Airbus And Boeing....NSI News Source Info # 741

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - July 11, 2010: China is fast learning the ABCs of aircraft manufacturing: A as in Airbus (EAD:FP), B as in Boeing (BA), and C as in the Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China, or Comac. Approved in February 2007 by the State Council China's cabinet—Comac's mission is to produce homegrown jumbo jets and by 2020 to become the third major player in the worldwide commercial aircraft industry.
If all goes according to plan, Comac's first product, the C919 (a single-aisle plane with over 150 seats) could start competing with the A320 and B737 by the second half of the current decade. These types of planes constitute the single largest-selling category of commercial aircraft. Over the next 20 years, China is expected to buy about 100 such planes every year. Not coincidentally, Comac has indicated that after the initial ramp-up period, it expects to produce about 100 C919s annually and help China end its reliance on imported airplanes.