Comac ARJ21 - Design

Design

Comac was accused of copying the MD-80, although ACAC refers to the ARJ21 as "designed by Chinese with completely independent intellectual property rights". However, it was believed to be a practice plane since their new plane, the Comac C919 is completely designed by themselves. It is suspected that the plane is being built using tooling which was originally provided by the McDonnell Douglas Corporation for the licence-production of the MD-90 in China and which remained in China at the conclusion of the contract. Consequently, the plane may bear a resemblance to the DC-9 family of aircraft, with an identical cabin cross section, nose profile and tail. The plane features an all-new supercritical wing having a sweepback of 25 degrees and designed by Ukraine’s Antonov Design Bureau. It is fitted with winglets to improve aerodynamic performance. Antonov also assisted the project with geometrical determination and integral analysis of the construction strength of ARJ21. Some of China's supercomputers have been used to design parts for ARJ-21. The first general designer of ARJ-21 is Mr. Wu Xingshi (吴兴世), who was also the general designer of Shanghai Y-10, and the current general designer of ARJ-21 is Mr. Chen Yong (陈勇).

In addition to the baseline and the stretched passenger models, ACAC has proposed extended-range, freight, and business jet variants.