China’s indigenous regional jet, the ARJ21, is on track for service entry in 2009 – but the aircraft will have to be slightly bigger than originally planned
Chinese state-owned manufacturer AVIC 1 Commercial Aircraft (ACAC) has made major changes to its ARJ21-700 regional jet aircraft, which is expected to enter service in late 2009, to meet regulatory requirements.
The original design was for the fuselage exit doors to be positioned above and towards the front of the wing, but the Shanghai-based manufacturer’s president Zheng Qiang says regulators suggested the doors should be moved towards the back of the wing to make evacuation easier. As a result, ACAC has stretched the fuselage and added five seats to the original 85-seat base model, turning it into a 90-seater.
Repositioning the doors created a problem, however, as it meant they were too close to the aircraft’s fuselage-mounted General Electric CF34-10A engines.
ACAC has solved this by stretching the fuselage by about 1m (3ft) to create more distance between the exit doors and the engines. This allowed the extra row of five seats to be fitted in the cabin – a move Zheng says has been welcomed by airline customers. The consensus is “that 90 seats better suits their requirements”, he says.
While ACAC has made the aircraft bigger, it has also worked to get its weight down. “We did a careful programme revision in June last year and we realised during [the process] that the aircraft had some serious overweight issues,” says Zheng.
ACAC then spent the next six months on “design optimisation” to reduce weight and drag and is considering using composite materials for the horizontal stabiliser and tail fin, although other large sections, such as the nose, wing and main fuselage, will remain metallic.
Another design change is “reducing the winglets in size a bit to reduce load on the wing while still maintaining cruise effect”. Zheng says by the end of last year ACAC had “finalised and released the structural drawings and these drawings have been pre-approved by the Civil Aviation Administration of China”.
First aircraft
The main task this year is to manufacture all the parts for the first aircraft, says Zheng, with the main aircraft sections to be supplied by different AVIC 1 aircraft factories across China, making the ARJ21 programme very much a team effort.
Chengdu Aircraft is manufacturing the nose; Xian Aircraft the fuselage and wing; Shenyang Aircraft the engine pylon and vertical stabiliser; while Shanghai Aviation Industrial Group will provide the horizontal stabilizer. Jinan Special Structure Research Institute, meanwhile, will be helping with composite materials.
Final assembly will be handled by Shanghai Aviation Industrial Group. “According to our schedule, the first aircraft roll-out will be at end of 2007,” says Zheng. The first flight is scheduled for March 2008.
The ARJ21’s engine maker, General Electric, says it has completed the joint definition phase and plans to release the detailed CF34-10A engine design by the middle of this year. GE says “later in 2006” it plans to deliver “test hardware to ACAC for avionics rig and iron bird tests”. The company adds that it has matched its “engine test and certification schedule to the ARJ21 aircraft programme schedule”.
“The first full engine test is planned for 2007, followed by first flight on the ARJ21 in 2008. US FAR 33 engine certification is targeted for late that year.” GE also points out that the CF34-10A is roughly 80% common with the CF34-10E used to power the Embraer 190/195.
“To help ensure a trouble-free entry into service and mature reliability for the engine, GE will apply lessons learned from the CF34-10E field service experience to the -10A,” it adds.
Zheng says most of the flight tests will be at the China Flight Establishment, the country’s main flight test airfield near Xian in central China. He adds that ACAC expects the ARJ21-700 to receive CAAC type certification in September 2009 and go into service a few weeks after that.
ACAC is also hoping the ARJ21-700 can receive US Federal Aviation Administration certification at the same time that the CAAC approves the aircraft. Zheng is optimistic that this will happen because he says the FAA and CAAC are already collaborating.
“The FAA [has] sent four experts to the CAAC to help with certification of this programme [in China]. We think this will help us later on when applying for FAA certification,” he says.
Having the FAA involved early reflects the fact that the ARJ21 programme has 19 overseas suppliers, most from the USA, followed by Europe. “They are all our risk-sharing partners and in terms of value these European and US suppliers [account for] 60-70% of the aircraft’s value.”
Zheng says ACAC is also “discussing with the European certification authorities” and plans to apply for European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification after FAA approval. “The FAA is more strict, so if we can get FAA it should be easier to get the EASA certificate,” says Zheng.
Western sales
Getting FAA and EASA certification would be significant because it would mean the Chinese manufacturer could sell the aircraft in Western markets. Previously, export opportunities for Chinese commercial aircraft manufacturers have been limited because Chinese aircraft have lacked US and European certification.
This has meant the Chinese have generally focused their international sales efforts on second and third world nations or countries with which they have close political ties. Zheng says ACAC is likely to start by targeting China’s traditional markets – Africa, South America and South-East Asia – and that the biggest challenge it faces is “time”, with the earliest date an ARJ21-700 could be delivered to an overseas customer being 2011, says Zheng.
This is because ACAC first has to fulfil the 35 orders it has from Chinese buyers, with launch customer Shandong Airlines leading the way with 10 ARJ21-700s on order. Shanghai Airlines has ordered five -700s, while the remaining 20 -700s are on order for Shenzhen Financial Leasing. Xiamen Airlines has signed a memorandum of understanding for six -700s, but has yet to commit to a firm order, says Zheng.
This year ACAC expects to sell another 10-15 ARJ21-700s, but these will be to Chinese carriers, predicts Zheng. ACAC is marketing the ARJ21 as an aircraft ideally suited for “hot and high” flying conditions and one that can take off and land from airports with shorter runways – ideal for China’s more remote and mountainous regions.
The Chinese government, which named the aircraft the Advanced Regional Jet for the 21st Century – hence ARJ21 – wants the type to connect smaller cities to the major centres and help develop China’s more remote western provinces.
Sales and marketing personnel at ACAC have also been highlighting that the ARJ21 has a spacious passenger cabin, 3.14m (10.3ft) at its widest point and with a height of 2.03m, designed for five-abreast seating. The standard -700 has a range of 2,230km (1,200nm), maximum operating altitude of 39,000ft and requires a field length for take-off of 1,700m. An extended-range version has a range of 3,700km.
ACAC is aiming for more than 50% of the mainland Chinese market for commercial regional jets. From a cost point of view, the ARJ21 has an edge over imported regional jet aircraft because it is not subject to import tariffs.
The only other regional commercial jet aircraft now made in China is the 50-seat ERJ-145 from Harbin Embraer, a joint venture between China’s Harbin Aircraft and Brazil’s Embraer.
ACAC, meanwhile, is also hoping to win over Chinese airlines by having a purpose-built ARJ21 aircraft customer service centre at the Zizhu Science Based Industrial Park in Shanghai’s Minhang district. ACAC says it will house a spare-parts service centre, plus a training centre that will conduct ARJ21 flight maintenance and cabin attendant training programmes.
“Construction of the ARJ21 customer service centre is scheduled to be completed by June 2007 and be put into use in 2008,” says ACAC, which for the longer term plans to relocate its corporate quarters there following a second-phase site expansion.
ACAC claims that having the ARJ21 customer service centre will reduce operators’ training and maintenance costs. The purpose-built support centre is significant as it answers concerns from some Chinese airlines that there might be insufficient after-sales support.
Shanghai Airlines’ chairman Zhou Chi told Flight International in September 2003 that after-sales support was the only major concern Shanghai Airlines had with the ARJ21. “AVIC I in the past may not have had a perfect [after-sales] service system,” said Zhou, adding that “we hope that AVIC I can perfect this system. They have realised this and promised to build a nice after-sales support system.”
But Shanghai Airlines’ concerns appear to have been addressed. At a “foundation stone laying ceremony” held last December to promote the ARJ21 customer service centre, Shanghai Airlines’ vice-president Shao Xiaoyun was quoted as saying: “I can see that high attention has been paid by ACAC to customer service.”
Stretched version
While ACAC is gearing up for first production of the ARJ21-700, it also has plans on the board for an ARJ21-900, which is a stretched version.
But in the light of the changes made to the -700’s seating capacity, ACAC is re-evaluating what the -900’s seating capacity will be. It was originally planned to have 105 seats, but “later this year we will start discussions [with Chinese airlines] for configuration of the -900” and plan to launch the -900 in 2007 subject to Chinese government approval, says Zheng.
China’s government granted approval for the -700 in January 2003, but it has yet to give the go-ahead for the -900. The -900 standard version has the same range as the -700 standard version, but the extended range -900’s 3,330km is about 350km shorter than that of the -700ER.
ACAC has also yet to get the government green light for a freighter and business jet versions of the ARJ21 and so has yet to formally offer these aircraft for sale. An additional auxiliary fuel tank gives the ARJ21-700 business jet a range of 6,110km, enough to reach any point in China.
ACAC’s promotional material shows the business jet seating 20 passengers: three rows of two by two seating, one seat each side of a table and a further six seats arranged around a meeting table.
The ARJ21-700 freighter, meanwhile, has a main hold that is 19m long, a maximum payload of 10,150kg (22,360lb) and a range of 3,335km. The hold is big enough to house five 2D7 containers or four to five standard cargo pallets.
At this year’s Asian Aerospace air show, ACAC will be displaying scale models of the ARJ21.
LEITHEN FRANCIS / SINGAPORE
Source: Flight International
