Aviation INDUSTRIES of China (AVIC) has switched plans for the final assembly of the proposed AE31X family of regional aircraft from Shanghai to Xian, in an move which threatens to complicate development and logistical support of the international programme.
China's State Council is understood to have dropped Shanghai in favour of Xian in the central province of Shaanxi, in an attempt to spread high-technology investment to other parts of the country. Much of the recent economic development has been concentrated along the east coast, at the expense of central inland and more remote western regions.
Western investment in China's aerospace industry has followed a similar pattern, with Shanghai Aviation Industrial (SAIC) being the main focus of McDonnell Douglas' $1.6 billion TrunkLiner programme. SAIC has assembled 35 MD-82/83s and expects to deliver the first of 20 locally produced MD-90-30s in 1998.
Shanghai was regarded as the most logical site to build the planned AVIC/Airbus Industrie Asia (AIA) AE316 and AE317, given SAIC's capabilities. Xian Aircraft's (XAC) involvement with civil-aircraft programmes to date has been largely limited to production of the Y-7 turboprop and sub-contract section 48 work for the Boeing 737.
It is unclear how AIA and Singapore Technologies Aerospace (STAe) officially regard the Xian decision. Both companies, however, have pushed for the joint venture to have overall control of final assembly in China, and some officials are unhappy with XAC's capabilities and its less-accessible geographical location, say local sources in Beijing.
While AVIC will have responsibility for final assembly and, possibly, for producing part of the wing, other major subassembly structures will have to be shipped into Xian from AIA's partner factories in Europe. STAe will be responsibile for the aircraft's tailcone, avionics integration and electrical- power distribution system.
The three companies, in the meantime, are continuing to try to finalise an overall business agreement by the end of the year.
Source: Flight International
