Aviation International News reported that during French President Macron’s state visit to China, Chinese helicopter lessor and operator GDAT announced a contract to purchase 50 H160 intermediate-twin helicopters from Airbus Helicopters. The deal, worth more than $700 million, is the largest single order to date for the H160 on the civil and parapublic market. The two companies also signed a strategic cooperation agreement on support and services capabilities.
Full Story (Aviation International News)
Tag: China
Chinese Space Launches Could Double in 2023
Space News reports that launches conducted “by commercial Chinese launch service providers could more than double those attempted last year, according to firms’ plans for 2023.” The more than 20 launches “now planned by commercial launch service providers would notably eclipse the total number of orbital launches conducted by China in 2017, demonstrating the rapid growth in Chinese launch capacity and cadence in recent years.” The development could “provide momentum to deployment of Chinese commercial small satellite constellations and have implications internationally for space traffic management.” China conducted “a national record 64 launches in 2022, with 54 of these accounted for by the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).” Other actors – namely Expace, Landspace, iSpace and Galactic Energy – “contributed 10 more, including a pair of launch failures.” CASC has declared “its intentions to surpass 60 launches this year, but the companies above and a handful of new entrants are planning more than 20 launches of their own.”
Full Story (Space News – Subscription Publication)
China Conducts Blended Wing Body Verification Scale Model Flight
Aviation Week reports that China has flown a “verification scale model of the BWB-330 blended wing body concept aircraft” designed by Northwestern Polytechnic University and aircraft manufacturer Comac. The model represents “a future civil airliner design that would carry 300-330 passengers.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
China Prepares for Over 70 Launches This Year
Space News reports that China’s state-owned and commercial space sector actors “are planning a total of more than 70 launches across 2023 as the country’s space activities continue to expand.” The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) “will again aim for more than 50 launches this year, according to an announcement from an early January meeting.” China launched 64 times in 2022. Combined launch plans “of CASC and commercial actors could see the country top 70 launches this year from three inland spaceports, the coastal Wenchang spaceport and the Haiyang spaceport facilitating sea launches.” Among CASC’s major launches “will be two Shenzhou crewed missions to the Tiangong space station and a supporting pair of Tianzhou cargo spacecraft.”
Full Story (Space News)
China’s New Tiangong Space Station Now Operational
SPACE reports, “The International Space Station is no longer the only place where humans can live in orbit.” Chinese astronauts late last month reached the Tiangong space station, replacing “the existing crew that helped wrap up construction. With this successful mission, China has become just the third nation to operate a permanent space station.”
Full Story (SPACE)
China Shifting to Airbus as US-China Tensions Rise
Bloomberg reports that as US-Sino tensions have risen, Chinese airlines have shifted more toward Airbus aircraft as opposed to Boeing aircraft.
Full Story (Bloomberg)
China, Russia, and US Expected to Renew Long-Range Bomber Fleets
Aviation Week reports, “As of 2022, only three countries continue to operate dedicated long-range bombers – China, Russia and the U.S. – with 518 aircraft in service around the world.” Aviation Week Network “projects the number will increase over the next decade to 574 aircraft as the same three operators modernize and expand their fleets.” The next generation of bombers includes “the Air Force’s B-21 and China’s H-20,” while “the largest single family of bombers in service around the world is the Xian H-6 operated by China, itself a platform that can trace its lineage back 70 years to the first flight of the Tupolev Tu-16 just 12 days after the B-52.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
China to Launch More Than 50 Space Missions in 2022
Space News reports that the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation “aims to launch at least 140 spacecraft across more than 50 launches in 2022 following its busiest year in space so far.” Major missions “will include six launches to complete the construction phase of the Tiangong space station.”
Full Story (Space News)
China Approves Return of Boeing 737 Max
The AP reports that the Civil Aviation Administration of China “cleared the Boeing 737 Max on Thursday to return to flying with technical upgrades more than two years after the plane was grounded worldwide following two fatal crashes.” China was the final large market to approve the return of the Boeing 737 Max.
Full Story (Associated Press)
China to Consider Test Flights On Boeing 737 MAX
Bloomberg reports that “Chinese aviation officials” are considering conducting a “validation flight” for the Boeing 737 MAX, “a step toward lifting the plane’s grounding in that nation after more than two years, according to people familiar with the matter.” The Boeing Company “is preparing to send a delegation of around 35 pilots and engineers to meet with regulators in late July after they undergo weeks of quarantine, one of the people said.” Following the test flight, Chinese regulators could “take many months” to finalize their inspections of the jet, “particularly if there is no break in the heightened trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.”
Full Story (Bloomberg)