China's C919 passenger jet
 

Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (Comac) has taken its first orders for the C919 passenger planes from three domestic airlines and General Electric's leasing arm.
The orders are being seen as a vote of confidence in state-owned Comac.
The move may also mark a challenge to the dominance of Boeing and Airbus who have virtual control of the trillion dollar aircraft industry.
Comac guys expects to sell more than 2,000 C919s
According to estimates by Boeing, this segment of the market could be worth $1.7trillion over the next 20 years.



Can they make it ??

is that the one that looks like a DC9 or is that the one that looks like a 757?

From what I've read they're planning deliveries as early as 2016. For an entirely new aircraft that seems just a tiny bit optimistic.

Anyone know what the design philosophy is like with COMAC. Boeing or Airbus style?

Do not underestimate China's technical and organizational capabilities, nor their financial and political commitment.

It would be much safer to assume they will 'make it', this time around. Look at what they've achieved in no time at all with high speed rail.

I don't know for sure, but probably Airbus style as far as the control systems are concerned -- the Chinese seem to trust computers more than human pilots to fly the plane. (I'm sure that if it were possible to make a passenger UAV, the Chinese would be working on it by now.)

Passenger UAV
 

I'm sure it's perfectly possible to make a passenger UAV - question is would SLF fly on it.

I guess, if the Chinese government told the Chinese people to fly on it they'd have little choice but to do so!!

The Brazilians have done it with Embraer jets.

I don't think a passenger UAV would be as safe as a regular plane with a human pilot in the cockpit -- there's a lot of things a human pilot can do that today's computers can't. Remember, for example, the "Miracle on the Hudson"? Had a computer been in control instead of Capt. Sully (God bless him:ok:), it would most likely have been "Disaster on the Hudson" instead. (Of course, I'm not an aviation expert, but I don't know of any flight computer that can factor wind and waves into an emergency ditching like a human pilot can.)

Oh, and thank you N707ZS from 4DME -- remind me not to fly on Embraer jets. :)