Aviation News
- China setting up to join aircraft high flyers
Date: 10-Dec-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
CHINA has started building an 80,000-ton press forge in Deyang in southwestern Sichuan Province, paving the way for the country to produce its own large aircraft, a long-held dream of the nation. The project, costing 1.517 billion yuan (US$204.7 million), had won the approval of the National Development and Reform Commission and was expected to be the world's largest when it was finished in two and a half years, said Zeng Xiangdong, project director and vice general manager of China National Erzhong Group Co.
A large die-hydraulic press forge is one of the key instruments in making jumbo jets. Speaking on Friday, Zeng said only a few countries, including the United States, Russia and France, had such facilities.
The largest press forge now is 75,000 tons and is owned by Russia. All the press forges in China are below 40,000 tons.
Chen Xiaoci, vice director of the press forge project, said the machine was designed by China National Erzhong Group and was being built in the company's compound.
The company has produced more than 400,000 die-forgings during the past 30 or so years for China's aviation industry, used in all the models of Chinese airplanes.
China started to build very large aircraft in 1970, only two years after Airbus went into production, but the project was later shelved despite a promising start.
After a decades-long suspension, the Central Government last year revived the blueprint in the 11th five-year plan (2006-2010) in order to meet the country's growing demand for air travel.
To prepare for the very large plane project, China began building its own regional jet, the ARJ-21 - meaning 'advanced regional jet for the 21st century?- in 2002.
Only the United States, Russia, France, Germany, Britain and Spain have the capability to build very large aircraft, with the United State's Boeing and Europe's Airbus taking the lion's share of the international market.
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