China Excludes Russia From Developing Competitor To Boeing, Airbus Planes

Beijing is promoting the aircraft as an exclusively Chinese development.

China has finally excluded Russian partners from the CR929 jetliner project, which competes with Boeing and Airbus production planes, the South China Morning Post reports.

In particular, the Chinese developer of the aircraft - Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) - no longer lists Russia among the project participants and promotes the aircraft as an exclusively Chinese development.

COMAC vice president Eti Xuefeng said at the China Air Transport Association conference last week that "progress" was being made in the development of the jetliner and that it was moving to the "detailed design" stage, without mentioning Russia.

Russia as a partner was also not mentioned during the official launch of the special lab for the CR929 in September. COMAC then claimed China's achievements of "technological self-reliance" and "independent innovation capabilities". There was also no mention of the involvement of Russia's United Aircraft Corporation, which was originally supposed to build the airframe and wanted to participate in engine development.

At the French Le Bourget Air Show in summer 2023, the new aircraft was also presented as China's own development, although even the abbreviation of the CR airliner was supposed to symbolise the countries participating in the project (C - China, China; R - Russia, Russia). Now R has been removed from the aircraft's name and COMAC is promoting it as C929.