Chapter 134 - 130 C832_1

"Commercial jetliners? That’s COMAC’s business; we have no control over that."

It wasn’t until Androff produced two conceptual images, one of a wide-body regional jet using two XXW-10 engines and another of a wide-body trunk jet using two XW-30 engines, that Zhu Chi suddenly realized this was deliberate!

But if all commercial airliners were handed over to COMAC, what was his involvement? It didn’t match his responsibilities.

"But the C919, tell me honestly, is it really domestically produced? Is it worth that much investment?"

Zhu Chi found himself at a loss for words again. He certainly knew the actual domestic content of the C919 and had to agree that it made a good point.

Lin Ju took over the conversation and continued the offensive: "The regional jet we’re designing has 220 seats and the trunk jet 320 seats, both far superior to the C919. Most importantly, the engines are completely self-produced. If necessary, we could manufacture them without a single foreign part. Can the C919 manage that?"

"This..."

"New Yuan may not have the capability or financial resources for mass production of large commercial jets, but Rong City has the 611 Institute, right? We’ll provide the engines and the technology. Just look at the An-1250 and you’ll know there’s absolutely no problem with technology.

The Civil Aviation Authority invests; two purely domestically produced large aircraft, 30 billion for the regional and 60 billion for the trunk model, adding a new factory to create a new aircraft group, the whole operation could be sorted with 100 billion. What do you say, is the investment worth it?"

Like salesmen, Lin Ju and Androff were feeding ideas to Zhu Chi, causing his mental defenses to begin to crumble.

Every year, China spends hundreds of billions on imported commercial jets. If for just 100 billion, two models could be produced... Zhu Chi was indeed becoming intrigued.

Androff said, "The An-1250 is expected to make its maiden flight before April 30th. If she flies, would the authorities doubt our technical capabilities?"

Zhu Chi shook his head. If he really saw that plane take off, the title of the world’s largest transport aircraft would be indisputable. Who would have doubts?

"So, can the large aircraft be manufactured?"

"Yes, you should also bring the 611 Institute on board, and inform the provincial leaders as well."

In an instant, Lin Ju saw the light. If another base for producing large commercial jets could be built in Sichuan Province, even if the higher authorities didn’t provide funding, the provincial government would scrape the bottom of the barrel, or even march pandas in circus parades, to scrape together the funds.

Any local government understands the economic value that a large high-tech manufacturing enterprise can create.

New Yuan Aeronautics spent around 15 billion in cash in Sichuan over the past year, but it directly generated economic benefits for hundreds of local enterprises, leading to a total economic increase of over a hundred billion, including surrounding universities, housing, and entertainment construction. The provincial authorities highly prized New Yuan Aeronautics!

How vast is the commercial jet industry? Just China’s civil aviation market alone sustains giants like Boeing and Airbus, and there’s still room for other manufacturers to take a slice of the pie.

If an aircraft base in Sichuan could meet the requirements, even if the performance was slightly below the Boeing and Airbus models of the same class, the jets would definitely sell well.

If 500 jets could be produced per year, with sales amounting to hundreds of billions, this would firmly establish a trillion-yuan industrial giant, influencing the entire development of the western region.

So afterward, Lin Ju first approached the provincial authorities, presented the engine blueprint, and expressed his desire to build commercial jets. He also invited Chief Designer Yang Wei to demonstrate the project’s feasibility.

Once the technical feasibility was confirmed, the provincial leaders showed absolute support for the commercial jet project, promptly starting to draft documents to the higher authorities, attaching a pile of data, and sending a senior official to discuss it in person.

With provincial backing and engine support from New Yuan, the 611 Institute no longer hesitated and, together with Factory 132, expressed interest in joining.

Under such high-level attention, a standing committee meeting was convened by the authorities on January 20th.

Seven years ago, it was at such a standing committee meeting that the "Large Aircraft Project Proposal" was approved, and the C919 project was initiated.

Seven years later, the Sichuan provincial government, the 611 Institute, and the Civil Aviation Authority jointly submitted a proposal suggesting the establishment of the Southwest Commercial Aviation Company in the southwest, in collaboration with New Yuan Aeronautics, the 611 Institute & Factory 132, and the Civil Aviation Authority, to manufacture wholly self-owned regional and trunk commercial jets.

Since the three parties submitting the proposal were significant, and proposals from New Yuan were usually given high priority, a standing committee meeting was convened the very next day to discuss the joint proposal from the three entities.

Several aviation experts from Beijing also attended the meeting, ready to help assess the authenticity of the proposal’s content.

"Although New Yuan specializes in aerospace, evidence shows they have also achieved great things in aviation. One such advanced engine was part of a secret military project and performed well. The two proposed civilian engines have already been manufactured and flown, and their boss’s private jet uses their own engines," explained an expert to the leaders at the forefront of the meeting room, analyzing the technical accuracy.

"The aviation engine is known as the crown of industry," he said. "Once that is resolved, there is no need to spend extra effort on other issues for our country at present. Furthermore, it is reported that Xinyuan Company is manufacturing a large-scale transport plane, the An-1250, which is twice as big as the current largest transport plane in the world, the An-225."

"Its takeoff weight is more than five times that of our domestically developed Y-20 transport aircraft, so I believe that the technical part of the proposal is true and feasible, and it has the potential to achieve their stated goal of conducting the maiden flight of the first airliner within two years."

Toward the end, the presenting expert also specifically showed a comparison chart provided by Xinyuan, which depicted the An-1250 alongside the size of the world’s mainstream transport aircraft, giving the leaders below a direct sense of the sheer size disparity.

Everyone found it hard to believe their own country could build such a super-large transport aircraft; they whispered to each other, exchanged glances, and asked questions repeatedly just to confirm the accuracy of the information.

After a while, the leaders finally got to the main topic.

"If the technology is indeed feasible and it’s completely built indigenously, I support the establishment of Southwest Commercial Aviation Company. Localization is most important," one said.

"COMAC already exists, so just assign it to them."

"Monopolization isn’t a good thing; we can’t put all our eggs in one basket. Besides, having a few more high-tech manufacturing bases in Sichuan Province is beneficial, and in the future, it will continuously create value. The central government can also reduce financial support," another argued.

After that statement, laughter erupted; every year, in terms of fiscal revenue remitted to the central government, Sichuan Province was always last, and even in the negative!

They would be satisfied not to turn the losses into profits but just to reduce the central government subsidies a bit.

"Xinyuan Company is already a giant; letting them enter the aviation industry, isn’t that inappropriate?"

"They don’t have the capacity to cover everything, and besides, this is a tripartite cooperation. Isn’t Xinyuan Company responsible for the engines and avionics?"

"The bigger the giant, the better. There are many successful private giants, and this is still a purely Chinese enterprise. It’s not like it can fly to America, right?"

After some discussion, the meeting expressed general agreement.

The large aircraft project was of great importance to them. The C919 was their only hope not because they were reluctant to spend the money, but because there were too few capable units.

So, if the technical conditions were met, funding was actually not the problem.

With that premise established, the discussion finally centered around two issues:

First was how much investment Southwest Commercial Aviation (abbreviated as COMAC Aviation) would receive, and what the shareholding ratio would be;

Second was what would happen with the C919 project and subsequent projects, like the C929, from COMAC.

The first issue was ultimately decided to be a three-way split, with each party holding 30%, leaving 10% available for many other enterprises to share; of course, this effectively meant a 60% official shareholding, which was quite reassuring.

The initial site selection was set in Yizhou, with a total investment of 100 billion yuan for COMAC Aviation and for two regional and trunk airliner projects.

The 220-seat regional airliner was named the C822, and the 320-seat trunk airliner was named the C832.

The last two digits of the C919 represent 190 seats, and the initial ’9’ symbolizes "longevity."

The ’8’ in C822 and C832 pronounced similarly to "fortune," and the numbers 8 and 9 also represent the two brother companies, COMAC and COMAC Aviation.

The second issue was to continue on; the C919 project was still proceeding as planned, but it would not be the primary support target anymore because even if the C919 were successful and ventured out of the country, it would not be as advantageous as the C822 and C832, which could only fly domestically.

More importantly, the C832 was a trunk airliner capable of flying long-distance transoceanic routes, which meant that the country’s leaders could finally switch from using the 747 to their own aircraft for state visits—how much more prestigious would that be?

This was one of the many reasons that influenced the firm decision to progress the C833.

On January 26th,

The government passed the "National Large Aircraft Related Resolution" plan, approving the establishment of Southwest Commercial Aviation Company in Yizhou, and initiated the C822 and C832 large airliner projects with a total funding of 100 billion yuan.

Sichuan Province also provided a special allocation of 10 billion yuan and a policy-based support loan of 20 billion yuan, and with a large piece of land as collateral, acquired a 3% shareholding, which made COMAC Aviation a behemoth enterprise with a blend of local, military, civilian, and central government interests.

Most people watching the news felt little, only COMAC turned up question marks.