Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE
China has scrapped the Boeing MD-90-30 TrunkLiner programme less than a month after the collapse of AE-3IX co-development negotiations with Airbus Industrie Asia, delivering a double blow to the country's once bold aerospace ambitions.
Aviation Industries of China (AVIC) has instructed Boeing's Long Beach plant to stop shipments of material beyond the initial three consignments already delivered to Shanghai Aviation Industrial (SAIC). Similarly, China National Aero Technology Import & Export has asked the US manufacturer to terminate its TrunkLiner supplier contracts, such as avionics and engines.
It is understood that SAIC has already taken delivery of sufficient substructures, components and systems to complete final assembly of three aircraft. AVIC is thought to want to finish the three twinjets, but there remains the unanswered question of which Chinese airline will take the aircraft.
Under a renegotiated 1994 deal between AVIC and McDonnell Douglas, the number of SAIC licence-built MD-90s was halved to 20. The first was scheduled for delivery in April this year. With no local buyer in sight, final assembly of the first aircraft has yet to begin.
The decision to curtail the programme is a further blow to China's aerospace industry, which as a component supplier to Long Beach has been hit by Boeing's decision to discontinue MD-90 production.
Some 70% of the 20 TrunkLiners were to have been built locally, with Xian supplying wings and forward fuselage, Chengdu the nose, and Shenyang the empennage and electrical wiring.
It is understood from various local sources that AVIC is discussing becoming a second supplier to Boeing for the 717-200's wing, in a bid to fill the void. Hyundai is already under contract as the primary wing supplier, but Boeing recently approached Japan as a possible second source supplier.
Korean Air has already subcontracted the supply 13 of its 717 nose sections to Chengdu. Fuller involvement in the 105-seat twinjet would be a virtual full circle for China, which had hoped to produce the aircraft, then the MD-95, as a follow-on to the TrunkLiner.
Source: Flight International
