The Deputy Prime Minister of Russia said that Russia will reduce the participation of China and Russia CR929. If Russia withdraws, the large aircraft will be more advanced

Is the long range wide body large aircraft CR929 project jointly developed by Russia and China going yellow? The CR929 project is unlikely to fail. It is being developed in an orderly manner, but it does not rule out the possibility of Russia's withdrawal from the CR929 project, because the Russians feel that the technology of civil aviation airliners is becoming less and less technologically advantageous to China. China is leading this project, and they have little to do in this project. Their contributions are getting smaller and smaller. In the future, the project will be successful, Commercialized, Russia is worried that the future benefits will not meet their expectations.

The development of aircraft represents the scientific and technological level and industrial capability of a country. Since the founding of the country, China has never relaxed its exploration and pursuit of aircraft development. After several generations of people's up and down search and hard work, in the field of military aircraft, not only has the world's advanced fighter developed three and a half generations of J-10 fighters, J-16 fighters, and Y-20 large transport aircraft, It has also developed the world leading four generation stealth fighter J-20. In terms of military aircraft, China has surpassed Russia and France, and ranked as the first group in the world with the United States.

China is trying to catch up with civil aviation airliners, especially long-distance wide body airliners. Yun-10 large civil aviation airliner has been successfully developed. It has flown 107 sorties/155 hours for many times, with a maximum range of 3600 kilometers, a maximum speed of 930 kilometers/hour, a maximum takeoff weight of 110 tons, and a maximum flight of 11000 meters. Various flight tests have proved that the Yun-10 aircraft has good performance and can meet the flight requirements of domestic routes. However, due to various reasons, The Yun10 airliner was dismounted in 1985.

However, China has never given up its pursuit and ambition of developing civil aviation airliners. In the 21st century, we have restarted the development of civil aviation airliners. This time, we are more pragmatic and walk on two legs: we independently developed the 158-168 seat medium and short range narrow body large aircraft C919; Jointly developed with Russia the long range wide body large aircraft CR929, with 280 seats in standard three cabins.

Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), the main body of the medium and large passenger aircraft project of the major national large aircraft project, was established in Shanghai in 2008. On January 6, 2009, COMAC officially released the first single channel conventional layout 150 seat large passenger aircraft model code COMAC919, or C919 for short; On May 5, 2017, C919 made its first successful flight; From October 31 to November 1, 2020, C919 domestic large aircraft will be displayed dynamically for the first time in the world;

In May 2022, the C919 aircraft numbered B-001J took off from runway 4 of Pudong Airport and landed safely, marking the successful completion of the first flight test of China's first large civil jet aircraft with independent intellectual property rights in accordance with the latest international airworthiness standards. The C919 aircraft is about to be mass produced and commercially used, which shows that China has successfully developed large civil aircraft and entered the club of large civil aircraft manufacturers.

The C919 aircraft has been successfully completed, and the new development focus is naturally the wide body CR929 aircraft jointly developed by China and Russia. What is the current progress of this project? Is it as smooth as C919? Unexpectedly, a staggering news came from Russia. Russian Satellite News Agency reported on July 4 that Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov recently said at the Russian "Future Engineers" Forum that Russia is reducing its participation in the project of jointly building a long range wide body aircraft CR929 with China, because this project is not moving in the direction suitable for Russia.

On June 25, 2016, COMAC signed a project joint venture contract with Russian United Aviation Manufacturing Group to jointly develop the long-distance wide body large aircraft CR929. C is the first letter of Chinese English, R is the first letter of Russian English, and CR means the Sino Russian joint project.

According to the cooperation agreement, the Chinese side is responsible for the development of CR929 fuselage, fairing and horizontal and vertical tail wings, while the Russian side is responsible for the development of wing consoles, central machines and wing mechanization.

Six years later, the joint development of the CR929 aircraft project was not so smooth, mainly because Russia's heart was not so complete with ours. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Borisov said: Russia has an aircraft design bureau in operation, and we have a lot of experience in central air hydrodynamics. However, as China has become an industrial giant, they are less and less interested in our services.

Why is China less and less interested in Russian services? Because Russia's technical level in the research field it undertakes is not as good as China's (at the beginning, Russia cooperated with Russia to jointly develop the CR929 aircraft, probably thinking too well of Russia's technical level), there is a big gap compared with France and the United States, such as the technology of the wings of passenger aircraft, and the wings of modern large passenger aircraft and transport aircraft must meet the technical requirements of supercritical wings, They are all made of high modulus carbon fiber, and the United States, France and China have mastered this technology (the 20 large transport aircraft use carbon fiber wings). However, Russia has not mastered the technology and equipment for manufacturing carbon fiber wings, and the wings of its civil aviation airliners and large transport aircraft still use the backward technology of the last century aluminum magnesium alloy.

Some people will say that Russia's engine technology is stronger than China's, and China has to rely on Russia in this regard. In fact, this is the recognition of the old almanac. In terms of aeroengines, China has emerged as a new force, and its technical strength has actually exceeded that of Russia. For example, the engines of fighter planes, the turbofan-10 Taihang engine independently developed by China, has been applied to the J-20, J-16, J-10C, J-11B, and J-15. At the same time, China is also developing a higher thrust, more advanced aero-engine turbofan-15 (code name Emei).

As for the engine of the CR929 aircraft, China and Russia are developing at the same time. The engine specially developed for the CR929 in China is called "Changjiang 2000", with an output power of 350 kN, and its technical level is equivalent to that of the engine GENX on the US Boeing 787. The technical level of Russia's engines for civil aircraft is not high, and it has not yet been able to develop an engine with an output power of 200 kN. Therefore, the PD35 engine matching the CR929 in Russia may face greater technical difficulties than China's development of the "Yangtze River 2000" in order to achieve an output power of 350 kN.

As for the level of the aircraft's avionics system, telex system, cockpit, etc., Russia is far behind China, the United States, France, China will not want Russia's technology in these areas, on the contrary, Russia is eager to acquire Chinese technology.

As for the technology of CR929 aircraft, China, as Russian Vice Premier Borisov said, "is becoming less and less interested in our services". For joint projects, the one who provides more technology and makes greater contributions will get a larger share of the profits after the successful development of the project. This is a universally applicable rule and principle. In the actual development process, Russia's technical contribution to the CR929 aircraft is much smaller than expected by both China and Russia, and Russia has less and less to do. After the CR929 aircraft is successfully developed and commercialized, Russia will naturally get less benefit. It is unreasonable that you can't expect to get 5 points or 4 points for only one point of contribution.

So, will Russia withdraw from the CR929 aircraft project? Russian Deputy Prime Minister Borisov said: "I don't want to predict the future of this project and whether Russia will withdraw from this project. So far, the project is still in progress."

Obviously, Russia does not want to withdraw from the CR929 aircraft project at present, but as a senior official at the level of Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, what is the purpose of Borisov's remarks about the CR929 aircraft project? Russia is using diplomatic skills to pressure China to obtain the expected benefits after the successful development and commercialization of the project. China should not only let Russia obtain a small share of the benefits because Russia has made little technical contributions. In short, it requires China not to distribute the benefits in the way of "how much contribution equals how much benefit".

If China finally fails to agree with Russia's unreasonable request, it is not ruled out that Russia will eventually withdraw from the CR929 aircraft project. After all, the Russian Vice Premier himself thinks that Russia can provide little technology in this project, and its contribution to this project is very small, which is increasingly dispensable.

If the CR929 turns into a C929 in the future, and becomes another large civil aircraft independently developed by China after the C919, the project is more likely to succeed than the joint development of China and Russia, the aircraft's various technologies and performance are higher and more perfect, and it is more competitive with the Boeing 777 and the Airbus A330, which can quickly and better establish the position of three pillars.