Xian Aircraft is to produce a new commercial turboprop called the MA700, a 70-seater that will be built using advanced manufacturing techniques and composite materials and which is promised to be completely different to the Xian MA60.
The Chinese aircraft-maker will launch the MA700 programme next year and the aircraft's first flight will be in six to seven years from now, says Xian Aircraft vice-president Tang Jun.
The MA700's fuselage "will bear no relation to the MA60 - it will be a completely new aircraft", says Tang, who confirms the turboprop will have more composite materials to reduce overall weight.
He also says Xian is likely to make the wing using shot peening, a manufacturing technique the company perfected recently when it started making wings for AVIC 1 Commercial Aircraft's ARJ21 regional jet. The ARJ21 is the first Chinese commercial aircraft assembled using this technique.
"The MA60 has some [composite parts], but not so much, and the parts that are composite are small," says Tang.
When asked if the MA700 will have some of the same parts and flight systems as the ARJ21, Tang says they have yet to consider this. Some industry sources have suggested this could give Xian a competitive advantage because it would allow pilots on the MA700 to transition quickly to the ARJ21.
Efforts by China to produce a more technologically advanced 70-seat turboprop will increase competition against Europe's ATR, which has the 70-seat ATR 72-500, and Canda's Bombardier, which offers the 70-seat Q400.
The MA60 made its first flight in 2000 and is a 60-seat, stretched derivative of the Chinese-built Y-7, which itself is a derivative of the Antonov An-24. The MA60 has a catalogue price of $13 million and its Western equipment includes Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127J engines, avionics from Rockwell Collins and propellers from Hamilton Sundstrand.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
