GE, 중국과 제트엔진 조인트 벤쳐 설립

중국의 스텔스기 J-20의 시험 비행 성공에 따라
미국등 서방에서는 중국의 군사 기술에 대한 두려움이 커지고 있다.

스텔스, 엔진 추력, 레이더, 전자전 등의 핵심 군사 기술은 서방이 절대로 내줄수 없는 분야이다.

중국의 우주 항공 분야 발전상이 놀랍도록 빠르고, 대단하긴 하지만
전체적인 설계나 평가 수준은 미국이나 유럽 선진국보다는 한 단계 아래로 알려져 있다.

이미 60년대 부터 러시아의 미그, 수호이에서 습득한 기술로부터 Chendu, Shenyang 이라는 두 국영
항공기 설계국에서 경쟁적으로 J-7, J-8, J-9, J-13까지 천천히 선진 항공 기술을 따라잡으려 움직여 왔던 국가이기는 하다.  기존의 러시아 항공기를 바탕으로, (공식적으로 밝혀진 바는 없지만 거의 사실로 믿어지는 )빼내온 서방 기술을 접목해 독특한 형상을 보이고 있으나 설계 및 평가 기술은 한 수 아래였다.

빠른 기간 내에 개발에 성공해서 판매까지 하고 있는 중국의 전투기 J-10 (chendu)의 경우도 기존의 러시아 기술 기반의 J-9 프로젝트를 기반으로 이스라엘이 F-16을 기반으로 개발했다가 취소한 LAVI 설계 개념을 그대로 사용한 것으로 알려졌 있다.
J-11의 경우는 러시아 sukhoi-27 flanker의 면허 생산이 중간에 삐긋대면서 그 항공기를 역설계 방식으로 베낀 것으로 알려져 있다.

자국내 수요가 충분해 시장성도 좋은 민항기 시장에서도 C919와 같은 중대형, ARJ21과 같은 중형 항공기의 개발은 러시아와 서방 기술을 상당 부분 차용한 것으로 알려져 있다.
따라서 기술 수준이 한 세대 이전이라, 보잉이나 에어버스가 개발 중인 차세대 항공기가 보여줄
추력대 중량비에 한참 못 미치는 성능을 보여준다.

중국의 항공 기술에서 가장 아킬레스 건 중 하나가 바로 제트 엔진 기술이다.
이로 인해 군용 항공기에서는 충분한 추력을 내지 못해 성능이 떨어지고, 민간 항공기에서는 추력대 중량비가 낮아 운영 효율성이 떨어지는 부분을 따라 잡지 못 한 것이다.
제트 엔진 기술은 꾸준히 러시아제 엔진을 따라서 개발해 왔지만,
러시아 제트 엔진 자체가 효율 면에서 서방에 비해 다소 떨어지는 것을 다시 베끼다 보니 성능 면에서 한참 떨어지는 것이다. 특히 민항기 부분에서는 경제성과 직결되는 문제라 치명적인 부분인데, 군사 기술로의 전용을 우려하는 서방 정부에서는 Rolls-royce, Prat-whitney, GE 등의 최신 엔진을 중국에 제공하지 않아서 난항에 빠져 있었다.
이번 후진타오 주석의 미국 국빈 방문에 맞추어 GE와 중국 민항국 COMAC 간의 조인트 벤처가 설립된다고 한다. 단순히 엔진 공급자 정도가 아니라 조인트 벤쳐를 만들어 엔진의 커스터마이징이나 시험, 판매 등에 대해서도 협력을 한다고 한다.
중국의 돈을 원하는 GE 자본의 입장에서야 시장 확대이겠지만, 미국 최신예 전투기에 엔진을 공급하는 GE를 통해 핵심 기술이 유출되는 것을 막아야 하는 미국 정부 입장에서는 또 할일이 많아질 것이다.
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/business/global/18plane.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha26&pagewanted=all

G.E. to Share Jet Technology With China in New Joint Venture

Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A prototype of the C919 jet that China’s state-owned aircraft maker hopes to begin delivering in 2016. G.E. has been chosen to supply the engines.

By DAVID BARBOZA, CHRISTOPHER DREW and STEVE LOHR

Published: January 17, 2011

This article was reported by David Barboza, Christopher Drew and Steve Lohr and written by Mr. Lohr.

Multimedia

Graphic

High Hopes for a Joint Venture

Nelson Ching/Bloomberg News

Lin Zuoming, president of Aviation Industry Corporation of China, with Jeffrey R. Immelt, G.E.’s chief, at a 2009 event in Beijing.

As China strives for leadership in the world’s most advanced industries, it sees commercial jetliners — planes that may someday challenge the best from Boeing and Airbus — as a top prize.

And no Western company has been more aggressive in helping China pursue that dream than one of the aviation industry’s biggest suppliers of jet engines and airplane technology, General Electric.

On Friday, during the visit of the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, to the United States, G.E. plans to sign a joint-venture agreement in commercial aviation that shows the tricky risk-and-reward calculations American corporations must increasingly make in their pursuit of lucrative markets in China.

G.E., in the partnership with a state-owned Chinese company, will be sharing its most sophisticated airplane electronics, including some of the same technology used in Boeing’s new state-of-the-art 787 Dreamliner.

For G.E., the pact is a chance to build upon an already well-established business in China, where the company has booming sales of jet engines, mainly to Chinese airlines that are now buying Boeing and Airbus planes. But doing business in China often requires Western multinationals like G.E. to share technology and trade secrets that might eventually enable Chinese companies to beat them at their own game — by making the same products cheaper, if not better.

The other risk is that Western technologies could help China play catch-up in military aviation — a concern underscored last week when the Chinese military demonstrated a prototype of its version of the Pentagon’s stealth fighter, even though the plane could be a decade away from production.

The first customer for the G.E. joint venture will be the Chinese company building a new airliner, the C919, that is meant to be China’s first entry in competition with Boeing and Airbus.

For the most part, Western aviation executives say the Chinese are simply too far behind in both civilian and military airplane technology to cause any real fears anytime soon — although it does put pressure on Boeing and Airbus to continue to innovate and stay technologically ahead of China.

G.E., which said it had briefed the commerce, defense and state departments on details of the deal, acknowledges that pairing up with a Chinese firm is a delicate dance. But because the commercial aircraft market in China is expected to generate sales of more than $400 billion over the next two decades, it is not a party the company is willing to miss.

Eventually, G.E. executives say, China will become a potent player in the commercial jetliner market, and the company wants to be a major supplier to the emerging Chinese producers.

“They are committed for the long term and they have every probability of being successful,” said John G. Rice, vice chairman of G.E. “We can participate in that or sit on the sidelines. We’re not about sitting on the sidelines.”

Mr. Rice also said that the Chinese joint venture partner — the aerospace design and equipment manufacturer Aviation Industry Corporation of China, or Avic — has supplied G.E. with some parts for jet engines for years. And he said he had personally known Avic’s president for a decade.

“This venture is a strategic move that we made after some thought and consideration, with a company we know,” Mr. Rice said. “This isn’t something we were forced into” by the Chinese government.

G.E.’s new joint venture in Shanghai will focus on avionics — the electronics for communications, navigation, cockpit displays and controls. G.E. will be contributing its leading-edge avionics technology — a high-performance core computer system that operates as the avionics brain of Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner.

The joint venture has a ready customer in the C919’s builder, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, which is also a government-owned enterprise. The plane will be a single-aisle airliner, carrying up to 200 passengers, intended to compete with Boeing 737s and Airbus 320s. Although the Chinese hope to begin deliveries in 2016, analysts say the schedule may well slip.

With or without the C919, the Chinese market for commercial airliners is already huge and growing fast — a big market for G.E. jet engines and other systems, as well as Boeing and Airbus planes. But if the C919 grabs any significant slice of that market, it would represent a new, expanded opportunity for G.E. The company has already been chosen to supply engines for the Chinese plane, through its long-standing partnership with Snecma of France. Though the world’s largest producer of jet engines, G.E. has trailed other suppliers of avionics in overall sales, behind Honeywell, Rockwell Collins and Thales, all of whom competed for the C919 business.

Several other American companies have also been chosen as suppliers for the C919 aircraft, providing power generators, fuel tanks, hydraulic controls, brakes, tires and other gear. The roster of United States suppliers includes Rockwell Collins, Honeywell, Hamilton Sundstrand, Parker Aerospace, Eaton Corporation and Kidde Aerospace.

In fact, the corporate competition for contracts on the C919 became a “frenzy,” said Mark Howes, president of Honeywell Aerospace Asia Pacific. The Chinese government, he said, had made it clear to Western companies that they should be “willing to share technology and know-how.”

But the G.E. avionics joint venture, analysts say, appears to be the deepest relationship yet and involves sharing the most confidential technology. And G.E.’s partner, Avic, also supplies China’s military aircraft and weapons systems.

G.E. executives would not comment on the details of the joint venture. But a person involved in the talks said the 50-50 venture is for 50 years. G.E., the person said, is putting in technology and start-up capital of $200 million. Avic will initially contribute $700 million, the person said, including the cost of a new research and development lab already under construction.

To address American government security concerns, the joint venture in Shanghai will occupy separate offices and be equipped with computer systems that cannot pass data to computers in Avic’s military division, G.E. executives say. And anyone working in the joint venture must wait two years before they can work on military projects at Avic, they added.

While Boeing and Airbus would probably rather not see their suppliers help the Chinese so much, both those companies must also constantly balance the risks and rewards of operating in China.

Boeing has subcontracted parts work to China for many years, and it is expanding a joint venture in Tianjin that makes parts with composite materials for several of its planes. And Airbus has built a factory that assembles A320s in the same city.

Boeing has “opted to accept the reality of both partnering and competing with China,” Boeing’s chief executive, W. James McNerney Jr., said in a speech last year.

Indeed, China’s push into the commercial aircraft industry will probably increase exports from American aviation equipment manufacturers for years to come, according to industry analysts. Whether China succeeds or fails, the state-owned companies will keep investing, generating sales for the suppliers.

The real concern lies further head, according to a study of China’s strategy included in a report published in November by a bipartisan Congressional advisory group, the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

The group concluded that China’s huge state subsidies for its own industry, its requirements that foreign companies provide technology and know-how to gain access to the Chinese market, along with the close ties between its commercial and military aviation sectors all raise concerns and “bear watching.”

The big aviation equipment makers say that, by now, they are experienced at grappling with matters of technology transfer in China. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Kent L. Statler, an executive vice president for commercial aviation at Rockwell Collins, observes that his employees often ask whether the company is trading its future for immediate sales in China.

“I think you’re naïve if you don’t take into account that you could be standing up a future competitor,” Mr. Statler said. Any company in a global business is in a race, he added, and staying ahead is the only defense. “At the end of the day, our technologies and processes have to continue to improve,” Mr. Statler said. “It comes down to who can innovate faster.”