China’s first domestically made passenger jet has flown its maiden commercial flight, as China looks to compete with industry giants such as Boeing and Airbus in the global aircraft market. The C919 plane, built by the Commercial Aviation Corporation of China, carried about 130 passengers on the flight. It took off Sunday morning from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport and landed less than two hours later in Beijing. The inaugural flight comes as COMAC looks to break into the single-aisle jet market in a direct challenge to Airbus and Boeing. While COMAC designed many of the C919’s parts, some of its key components are still sourced from the West, including its engine.
i mean yea, USSR did manage to build planes relatively early but what I meant was (like the other person mentioned) outside Airbus/Boeing there aren't many companies building commercial planes because of how risky and capital intensive it is.
being able to domestically manufacture such stuff is very important to prevent dependence on imports and protect against potential embargoes.
same thing with computer chips. there is a reason why China isn't there yet in terms of competing with the west on chip manufacturing. it requires a shit ton investment in equipment, technology, infrastructure and takes a very long time especially with the west guarding their IP.
Capitalists don't like making such investments unless they absolutely have to (eg privately owned rail infrastructure in the U.S.). They like short term profits which is why there won't be much chip production happening in India anytime soon.
it requires a shit ton investment in equipment, technology, infrastructure and takes a very long time especially with the west guarding their IP.
Fortunately the Chinese government is pushing hard for domestic adoption and production of RISC-V. This is an open-source, royalty-free CPU reference design that competes largely with ARM. NASA is also adopting it as their standard architecture for space-based computers for decades to come, as a way to prevent vendor lock-in. They want spacecraft computers to be much more modular.
because airplane building (in large scale) is very 'capital intensive' and requires the country to have a technical know-how to do it.
neither of those points seem like a huge challenge to something like the USSR or China
i mean yea, USSR did manage to build planes relatively early but what I meant was (like the other person mentioned) outside Airbus/Boeing there aren't many companies building commercial planes because of how risky and capital intensive it is.
being able to domestically manufacture such stuff is very important to prevent dependence on imports and protect against potential embargoes.
same thing with computer chips. there is a reason why China isn't there yet in terms of competing with the west on chip manufacturing. it requires a shit ton investment in equipment, technology, infrastructure and takes a very long time especially with the west guarding their IP.
Capitalists don't like making such investments unless they absolutely have to (eg privately owned rail infrastructure in the U.S.). They like short term profits which is why there won't be much chip production happening in India anytime soon.
Fortunately the Chinese government is pushing hard for domestic adoption and production of RISC-V. This is an open-source, royalty-free CPU reference design that competes largely with ARM. NASA is also adopting it as their standard architecture for space-based computers for decades to come, as a way to prevent vendor lock-in. They want spacecraft computers to be much more modular.