As we all know, the original name of my country's C929 large aircraft project was CR929, which means it was developed in cooperation with Russia. After 2023, the "R" in the name disappeared, meaning that our country will develop this new project alone.

However, there are also reports that Russia does not intend to withdraw completely, and is also thinking of participating in the project in another form, that is, supplying engines to our country. Since Russia has chosen to withdraw, will my country still choose Russian-made engines in future development?

Let’s talk about the answer first, there is absolutely no possibility. As for why it is not possible, it is actually reflected in the differences between why Russia withdraws from cooperation.

What are the differences that are difficult to cooperate?

Russia has its own independent civil aviation passenger plane. Whether Putin goes to Alaska to meet Trump or he comes to our country to attend the 1993 military parade, Russia is riding domestic civil aviation passenger planes. Moreover, the development of Russian civil aviation passenger aircraft first began in the Soviet era.

Although Russia's civil aviation passenger planes have not entered the international civil aviation passenger plane market for decades, due to 100% domestic production, Russia is still quite optimistic about their own civil aviation passenger planes. It can be said that this is their pride.

So, jointly develop wide-body passenger aircraft with our country, the Russians also want to show their "pride" on the new aircraft. Simply put, Russia considers its strategy and positioning in the global aviation market more.

But this will have a certain conflict with our market positioning, especially in the use of engines. Russia certainly hopes that new aircraft can use the engines they develop, but my country prefers to independently develop or use Western products.

For example, C919, my country ultimately uses engine products jointly developed by Europe and the United States. On the one hand, the domestic civil aviation engines were not mature enough before. On the other hand, my country's longer-term consideration for developing civil aviation passenger aircraft is to enter the global aviation market.

The most mature and largest aviation market in the world is undoubtedly in the West. It is in this context that we must consider cooperating with the West in a timely manner. It is at this level that our country and Russia undoubtedly have great differences.

Take the C919 as an example. my country could not produce engine products at that time, but it would rather consider cooperating with the West than choose to buy engines from Russia. Why is this happening? Isn’t it because we are considering the longer term, and we must consider that our country’s large aircraft will enter the European and American markets in the future?

Imagine that the C919 previously developed in my country did not use Russian-made engines. Will the C929 next developed use Russian-made engines? What's more, our cooperation with Russia has ended, so it is even more impossible to use Russian-made engines in the future.

The biggest possibility is that the C929 will use a domestic engine in the future, because just last month, the domestic engine Yangtze 1000A had officially entered the trial certification stage, which means that the domestic engine can be installed on civil aviation passenger planes next.

In addition to the Yangtze River 1000A, my country has been developing the Yangtze River 2000 before. There was news that the Yangtze River 2000 should become a special engine for the C929 in the future.

From the above situation, we can see that the biggest difference between my country and Russia is that we have different planning views on the market positioning and technology application of civil aviation technology.

Simply put, Russia does not seem to consider the future market investment of the aircraft, but my country is different. We have been planning to make great strides in the global market in the future. In this case, it is inevitable to deal with European and American countries.

Reasons for the recession of Russian civil aviation aircraft

The Russians seem extremely dull when dealing with the West. During the Soviet era, they had already built civil aviation passenger planes, and they also had their own mature technology and production systems. But why can't the Soviet civil aviation passenger planes enter the Western market?

Is it just because of Western repression and ideological and political differences between the two sides? In fact, not all of this is true. Another reason is that Russia and the West have very little room for game between them, both in terms of technology and in terms of markets.

In the 1960s, the Soviet Union produced supersonic civil aviation passenger aircraft, and it was tested in that era, and the effect was quite good. Due to the vast territory of the Soviet Union, the way of traveling aircraft is quite convenient and has a market.

In the field of conventional aircraft, in order to enter the international civil aviation market, the Soviet Union also produced the Tu154 civil aviation passenger aircraft in accordance with Western standards in the 1970s. The production volume of this model exceeds 1,000 aircraft. In addition to using it by the Soviet Union itself, it was also exported to Eastern Europe and the Americas and other countries.

During the Soviet Union, 15 aircraft manufacturers across the country produced at least 1,500 aircraft of various types each year. But in the Russian era, in the first few years of this century, Russia could only produce less than 10 civil aviation passenger planes a year. In 2005, Russia even produced only seven civil aircraft.

In this situation, Russian passenger planes have continued to decline, not to mention entering the international market, even if they have a domestic market share. At the beginning of this century, the global share of Russian-made passenger aircraft had dropped from 25% in the 1970s and 1980s to below 0.03%.

The decline in market share is not because of the Western blockade, but because their aircraft manufacturing technology and manufacturing concepts have not been updated. Many of the technical concepts of Russian civil aviation passenger planes remained in the 1980s.

For example, Russian-made civil aviation passenger planes could not obtain airworthiness certificates from European and American countries before. One of the big reasons is that the aircraft they made was difficult to pass the noise and pollution tests in Western countries.

Russia is not without technology. For example, their engine technology is relatively mature and complete. Take advantage of your own advantages and timely choices to cooperate with the West, especially in aircraft manufacturing standards, and you can also choose to move closer to Western standard designs.

If Russia could do this before, then the development of their civil aviation passenger aircraft will not have been slow to move forward in the past 30 years. It is true that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's lack of money was also a very critical reason, but the more this happens, shouldn't Russia adopt a more cooperative attitude?

So, whether in terms of technology or market, Russia often only plays on its own and does not consider the market share of civil aviation passenger aircraft. It is precisely because of this that their technology has been limited to domestic for many years and it is difficult to enter the international market on a large scale.

Game between technology and market

Russia has shown a casual attitude in the field of civil aviation passenger aircraft, which is their own choice and cannot be interfered with by the outside world. But we are different. From the beginning, we develop civil aviation passenger aircraft to move towards a broader market.

If Russia has technology but no market or capital according to our development ideas, choose to develop large aircraft with us, and then move closer to some Western design standards in a timely manner, the next project will definitely go smoothly.

But as mentioned earlier, Russia does not consider this at all, and they still maintain their consistent development ideas. If our wide-body passenger aircraft development has more choices and Russia's ideas, then the next development will definitely be deviated.

We have a vast land area, which has a huge population and aviation development potential compared to Russia, which means that our country's civil aviation market has huge potential in the future. Both Boeing and Airbus have made predictions in the past two years. The demand for China's civil aviation passenger aircraft will continue to rise in the next 30 to 50 years.

The market is huge. If we don’t develop our own civil aviation aircraft, Boeing and Airbus will definitely find ways to divide the cake. So just taking advantage of this, we developed our own civil aviation passenger planes.

On the one hand, you can use it in the country, and on the other hand, you can also enter the international market. The most important thing is that we can use our huge market to engage in a game with aviation companies in European and American countries.

To put it bluntly, this is a cooperative development idea, not an isolated and closed development model. After all, my country's current civil aviation development is in its infancy, and Boeing and Airbus are still using a large number of aircraft in China. In the next 10 to 30 years, various airlines will need to replace their aircraft models. This is the focus of the game with Western countries.

It is precisely because of this development idea that in the research and development of wide-body passenger aircraft, our design concepts are more open and not closed, and in some technologies, they may choose to combine them with some Western concepts.

Conversely, if we adopt the Russian development concept, we can eventually develop large aircraft, but it is very likely that it is closed and difficult to integrate into the international market. Even if our own aviation market is huge, without the exchange and integration of technology, there will still be gaps in the future development of civil aviation passenger aircraft.

Russian engines will not appear on our civil aircraft

The C919 did not use Russian engines in previous research and development, so it is even more unlikely that the C929 will use Russian engines in the future. After all, this is a difference in concepts.

If we use the relevant technical standards for future Russian-made engines and integrate into the international civil aviation market, more difficult problems will definitely arise.

In 2006, in order to revitalize the aircraft manufacturing industry, the Russian government planned to establish a joint aircraft company, but nearly 20 years have passed, and my country's civil aviation passenger planes have come from behind to start operating, but Russia's civil aviation passenger planes are shrinking step by step.

If the development concept remains unchanged, only God knows when Russia's new civil aviation passenger plane will fly into the sky.

Conclusion

my country will promote the future C929 according to its own development ideas. Whether it is technology or related design standards, it will be relatively open, because only in this way can it ensure that aircraft can enter a larger aviation market in the future.

At present, the development of my country's civil aviation engines is being carried out in an orderly manner. Whether it is the C919 or the future C929, they will eventually be replaced with domestic engines.

The Russian-made engine is likely not to appear, on the one hand, we don’t need it anymore. On the other hand, differences in concepts are the most critical factor.

Reference:

"CR929, separation may be a better choice" Observer.com May 9, 2024

"Trying to reappear the glory of the past, Russian-made aircraft is looking forward to taking off again in the period of time" Beijing News September 14, 2006

"C929 China Begins to "Fly Solo"" Electronic Engineering Album September 29, 2023

"Big Breakthrough! The domestically produced engine Yangtze River 1000A has entered the airworthiness certification. How far is it to take off? 》 Aviation Knowledge August 6, 2025