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50-percent interest in a prospective joint venture with AVIC Sys-tems, announced in November 2009, to develop the integrated avionics system for the COMAC C919. The new avionics com-pany will offer fully integrated, open-architecture avionics and services for future commercial aircraft programs. Although it will be headquartered in China, GE claims that the new venture will create about 200 jobs in the United States (“GE and AVIC Joint Venture Creates New Global Business Opportunities,” 2009). While many analysts consider the venture to be risky given GE’s lack of experience in the area, it is also regarded as a “huge deal [of the type] that has the potential to redefine the avionics market once every 15 to 20 years” (Layne, 2010).
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Undetermined interest in a prospective joint venture between CFM and ACAE, announced in December 2009, to establish a final assembly line and engine test facility for the LEAP-X1C engine selected for the COMAC C919 airliner. ACAE and CFM have reportedly established a working team to evaluate the scope and feasibility of the project. This same team will formulate the business plan and develop the legal structure and operating agree-ment for the proposed joint venture (“CFM and ACAE Sign MOU for LEAP-X1C Assembly Line In China,” 2009). For CFM, the C919 contract is reportedly valued at $5 billion and may be worth up to $15 billion over the next 30 years (“CFM Picked to Power China’s Future Plane,” March 2010).
In addition, GE Aviation has been very active in training techni-
cians from Chinese airlines on GE engine technology and line main-tenance needs. In 1996, GE and CFM partner Snecma opened a $17 million aero engine maintenance training center in Guanghan, Sichuan, adjacent to the CAAC Civil Aviation Flying College. The training center was the first of its kind in China and the third such GE facility—the other training centers are in Cincinnati and Melun-Montereau, France. The curriculum offered is reportedly identical to that at GE’s other training facilities (“Aero Engine Maintenance Train-ing Center Opens in Guanghan,” 1996). By the end of the 2000s, GE was training hundreds of Chinese jet engine technicians annually. In 2008, for instance, more than 500 flight-line mechanics and propul-sion engineers from almost 20 Chinese operators received training in flight-line engine maintenance, engine removal and installation, and engine borescope procedures. The training occurred at the Guanghan facility and at GE’s Customer Technical Education Center in Cincin-nati. It is said that Chinese airlines routinely send a dozen or more technicians at a time to spend at least two weeks at the Cincinnati facil-ity (“GE Training Hundreds of Jet Engine Technicians from Chinese Airlines,” 2008).
Goodrich Corporation
Goodrich has the following joint ventures in China:
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51-percent interest in Goodrich Asia-Pacific Limited, a Hong Kong–based joint venture launched in 1993 with the Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co. (HAECO), a subsidiary of the Swire Group. The company provides carbon-brake heat-sink refurbish-ment and wheels/brakes repair/overhaul services to commercial aircraft (“Goodrich Asia-Pacific Limited [GAP]”).
中国航空网 www.aero.cn
航空翻译 www.aviation.cn
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