April 09, 2010: 09:00 AM ET on CNNMoney.com
Trans-Pacific Aerospace Company, Inc. (OTCBB: TPAC) announced today that it intends to continue talks with Aviation Industries of China (AVIC) on a number of long-term growth initiatives.
Trans-Pacific Aerospace Company plans to use its proprietary aerospace bearing technologies to manufacture and sell component parts for both new commercial aircraft and spares for the existing commercial fleet, initially through a joint venture in China. The component parts are referred to as self-lubricating spherical bearings, and they help with several flight critical tasks including aircraft flight controls and landing gears.
“China’s homemade jumbo jet, known as the Comac 919, will be in production next year and enter service in 2016,” said Bill McKay, Trans-Pacific Aerospace CEO. “It’s important that we secure our position now, as China’s near-term goal is to sell 2,000 C919s and to eventually have all parts for the jet manufactured in China.”
The C919 will be a 168-190 seat narrow-body airliner built by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac). First iterations of the C919 will use foreign-made jet engines and avionics from GE. AVIC, a Beijing-based Fortune World 500 company with $21 billion in annual revenue, is a major shareholder of Shanghai-based Comac.
Mr. McKay also commented, “AVIC is also the manufacturer of the ARJ-21 regional jet and an end user of SAE self-lubricating bearings for Boeing and Airbus sub-assemblies and for spares for MROs. Qualification of our SAE self-lubricating bearings would provide AVIC with an in-country source of supply of SAE self-lubricating bearings, which is presently non-existent. These bearings will no longer have to be imported and will help China to meet its goal of having all commercial aircraft parts manufactured in China.”
AVIC has already established a number of joint ventures with such companies as Boeing, Airbus, GE, Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney, Northrop Grumman, Honeywell, Rockwell Collins and Sikorsky Aircraft in order to bring aerospace manufacturing capabilities into China.