"Breaking the cocoon into a butterfly": domestic large passenger aircraft C919

[Show us the most important weapon of the country]

  At about 14:00 on May 5, 2017, at Shanghai Pudong International Airport, the world's attention is focused on this.

  The engine roared, started to slide, the nose was raised, and the sky was straight into the sky, Kunpeng flapped its wings and flew into the sky...

  At 15:19, with the approaching roar of the aircraft engine and the passionate cheers from the crowd, a passenger plane whose rear fuselage was wrapped in sky blue and earth green stretched its wings and landed steadily at Shanghai Pudong International Airport. on the fourth runway.

  A historic moment was set in stone.

China's self-developed C919 large passenger aircraft made its maiden flight!

  After years of design and development, the domestic medium-haul trunk airliner has finally broken its cocoon and turned into a butterfly, soaring in the blue sky.

  From then on, thousands of miles of blue sky have added a large passenger aircraft that belongs to China and is completely developed according to the world's advanced standards!

This is a major breakthrough in my country's large passenger aircraft project.

  Why is it named C919?

  Its full name is "COMAC919" (abbreviated to the English name of the main aircraft manufacturer COMAC).

"C" is the first letter of "COMAC" and the first letter of China's English name "CHINA"; the first "9" means enduring and durable; "19" represents the maximum passenger capacity of 190 seats.

Taken together, it represents a durable 190-seat civil airliner in China.

  From the establishment of the "Yun Shi" aircraft independently developed by my country in 1970 to the successful first flight of the C919 in 2017, after 47 years, the Chinese "big aircraft dream" has finally come true.

  How hard is it to design an airplane?

According to Cheng Shishu, the deputy chief designer of the "Yun Shi" aircraft, developing an aircraft is like composing a song of one's own.

And C919 did not follow the previous songs to fill in the lyrics, but re-created new songs according to the needs.

  After the establishment of COMAC in 2008, the C919 has gone through 7 years from preliminary design to detailed design to airframe manufacturing.

More than 2,000 wing drawings, integrated design of nose, fuselage, wings, wing crane engines, etc., nearly 200 patent applications, and the trunk line aircraft C919 with completely independent intellectual property rights, all designed by the Chinese team. Finish.

  "Large aircraft is a landmark project for us to build an innovative country, and it is also a symbol of a national equipment manufacturing industry." said Zhang Yanzhong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of the review committee of the C919 large passenger aircraft maiden flight review committee, "The development of the C919 large aircraft, Not just an aircraft itself, it can drive the development of a series of industries such as materials, equipment manufacturing, electronic systems, and information."

  Indeed, during the development of C919, my country's large passenger aircraft technology innovation system has gradually formed, attracting and driving many colleges and universities and enterprises to participate in the development of large passenger aircraft projects - 5 categories, 20 majors, and more than 6,000 civilian applications. Aircraft technology, the design and development of the C919, has led to a group breakthrough in my country's technology, materials and craftsmanship.

  What's so great about the C919?

Compared with the same type of aircraft, it has outstanding characteristics in terms of safety, economy, environmental protection and comfort——

  "Adopting advanced aerodynamic design, the aerodynamic resistance is smaller than that of the same type of aircraft";

  "Everyone is most concerned about safety. It is designed in full accordance with international airworthiness standards to ensure safety";

  "Compared with the same type of 150-seat aircraft, the economic performance is better. Because of the advanced power system, the exhaust and noise it emits are more than 50% lower than existing aircraft." Zhang Yanzhong is familiar.

  "Large aircraft has created a big era." said Wu Xingshi, a Chinese civil aircraft design expert and member of the expert advisory group of COMAC.

After completing the project establishment demonstration, feasibility demonstration, and pre-development stage work, and transferred to the project development stage, C919 is ushering in the spring of vigorous development.

(Reporter Zhang Yaxiong of this newspaper)