Chinese airframer Comac will be the biggest threat to Boeing and Airbus and most likely to succeed in developing a program comparable to those offered by the duopoly, says Jim Albaugh, president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. (www.aviationweek.com) More...
While a Chinese govt funded program could be a serious problem for Boeing, what people forget is China only has one advantage. Cheap labor. Already their labor is demanding more. As soon as the Chinese workers make enough to buy their own products, they will be out of a job. Those jobs will go to somewhere with cheaper labor. The China market will be a bust, at least as far as consumer goods go. Which is about 70% of any economy. If you want a recent example, look at Mexico. Several years ago large number of American jobs went there, only to be abandoned for China in a few years. See how great the Mexican economy is today.
Comac cannot build airplanes without significant foreign contractor help - they may be able to one day displace some of the mainstay airframers in the US and Europe, but they have very little systems integrator capability or subsystem manufacturers/suppliers, and have traditionally relied heavily on Russian help. Comac will need to rely on western sub-system suppliers if they want to produce western-competitive aircraft, but judging by their cars I would expect them to struggle!
Boeing and Airbus would most likely pay the American and European suppliers to stay away from deals with Comac. It would be in their best intersts if they came anywhere near comparable levels.
Interesting idea, but I think that would breach competition anti-trust rules. The first tier prime contract systems integrators have no OEM loyalty, and will gladly send their engineers to China to work on projects like this.
I bet a case could be made that providing commercial & GA aircraft manufacturing take place in China, at cut rate prices, merely allowed them access to tools, dies, specifications and manufacturing experience. Once they have the keys to the kingdom, they can go it alone and/or undercut their original customers driving them out of the competitive market.
All I can think about it the multitude of cheap Chinese parts that have prematurely failed on cars......... would never want to fly on a Chinese made aircraft. :O
thank NAFTA for all this mess. Guess who created it.......you guessed it.....oh well :( Also, there is a much larger labor force in Asia than there is in Mexico......and Unions? There are none!! Ladies and gentleman....it all comes down to the dollar, unfortunately....it has always been that way. When items are manufactured overseas..do you think the retail price would lower to the American consumer?? Hell no, the price increased! It will only get worse. Aircraft OEMs are manufacturing aircraft parts outside our country now and will continue to expand. We are subsidizing foreign countries and THEIR economy at our expense. What gives!
But we keep buying their products.....don't we? All aircraft have foreign made parts and replacement parts already....and just about everything else. Can't beat them now....might as well join em'
