China's passenger jet project is providing a good opportunity for material providers such as Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco) to challenge Boeing and Airbus's dominance in the global aerospace market.

As a shareholder of Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd. (COMAC), state-owned Chinalco was in a favored position to participate in the project. But COMAC, along with leading aluminum producer Alcoa, announced at the end of October that they will jointly develop China's home-grown passenger jet C919 and supply the special aluminum needed for the aircraft.

"Alcoa is more technologically advanced than us, because aviation is a well-established industry in the U.S. and Alcoa is a supplier of Boeing," said Lu Youqing, deputy manager of Chinalco. "We have to catch up."

Chinalco has supplied materials for helicopter and aerospace craft, but has seldom supplied materials for passenger jets. The materials used on various crafts are different.

"The passenger jet manufacturing industry has just started up in China, so the materials that go with the jet need developing," said Lu. "Although Chinalco has provided materials for some components of the Boeing jet, it is a big challenge for the company to provide materials for a cabin or a whole airplane."

C919 is China's self-grown 190-seat narrow-body passenger jet. A test flight is scheduled for 2014 and it should be put into operation two years later in 2016. The aircraft will be assembled in Shanghai, but will source parts and components globally.

"Our goal is to design a high-efficiency, high-performance structure that will compete in the market. Therefore, it is imperative that we look at design alternatives and collaborate with innovative technology leaders like Alcoa," said Wu Guanghui, chief designer of the C919 program and vice president of COMAC.

Compared with Chinalco, Alcoa has more experience in the production of jet materials. China's regional jet ARJ21-700 uses a kind of special aluminum provided by Alcoa.

"Production of materials used on passenger jets is the primary challenge facing China's aviation industry. China's research on high-strength aluminum alloy was discontinued in the mid-1980s and it is very difficult to resume the research in the short term," said Zhou Jisheng, deputy chief-designer of the ARJ21 program.

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