China’s top civilian aircraft manufacturer is reassessing geopolitical risks to its supply chains – particularly for jet engines sourced from foreign firms – according to a source at the planemaker, as deliveries of its flagship
C919 passenger jet appear to be late or delayed this year.
The Shanghai-based Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) is facing external and internal constraints, including reliance on foreign suppliers for critical components and persistent manpower shortages, said the source, who added that other optimisations to design and production were already under way.
“Aircraft manufacturing has long and fiendishly complex supply chains … It involves a lot of planning and effort to add just one more jet to the delivery queue,” the person said on condition of anonymity, as the source was not authorised to speak to the media.
“Not a single link, a single piece in the supply chain can be missing. Similarly, not a single part of the hundreds of thousands of bolts, wires and systems that make up an airliner can be omitted, before we are satisfied with quality and safety so that a delivery can be made.”
Most of the components making up the jet’s airframe – including the nose, cockpit, wings, fuselage and tail – are sourced domestically, as efforts to expand localisation continue. But core systems, including the engine and avionics, still come from Western suppliers.
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