Viewpoints
[Adam Minter] China could seize a bit of the skies
Sept. 28, 2017
Last week, the Commercial Aviation Corp. of China (Comac) announced that the C919, China’s first homemade large passenger jet, had chalked up its 730th preorder. Those numbers won’t necessarily make the Boeing or Airbus SE quake; Boeing estimates Chinese airlines alone will require 5,420 new single-aisle planes by 2036. Ultimately, though, they could herald the end of global aviation’s great duopoly.Most of the C919’s orders come from state-owned Chinese companies, some of whom probably wouldn’t