Why did China wait until recently to start her own airliner program?  Why didn’t China start the C919 as far back as the mid 90s?  China wouldn't have to buy Boeings if they long started this project.

为什么中国直到最近才开始制造自己的客机？为什么中国没有在90年代中期就开始生产C919？如果中国早就开始着手制造C919，就不用购买波音了。

以下是Quora网友的评价：

Peter Ole Kvint

Building airplanes is a very big task that can be overturned by a single small detail. So China has started as a sub-supplier of all the parts that go into an aircraft. And finally collected them into an aircraft.

制造飞机是一项非常庞杂的任务，一个小小的细节可能就会导致失败。所以中国就先从飞机零部件的次级供应商做起，最后才整合成一架飞机。

iaoda iao

It took long for the China to collect all were needed to build a airliner, although even so, there were still missing elements here and there so that the test flying of the C919 turned incomplete.

中国花了很长时间才收集到制造一架客机所需的所有材料，但仍然还是缺一些缺少元素，所以C919的试飞其实并不完美。

Joseph Loh

with aircraft technology, especially the main turbine engines and other components, China is still relying on foreign suppliers or technology support. I am of the opinion that USA in the last 30 years, especially after 911, did a series of foreign activities, provided the golden opportunities or golden years, by targeting some countries like Iran, Iraq, Syria, and interfering in the domestic political affairs of countries like Ukraine ( before Russia/ukraine war) actually helped China gained many high end scientists and engineers from these countries, which MAY explain why China growth in economic, technological areas has been so fast, ( actually nearly all great countries including USA has experienced such rapid growth in technological and economic. USA absolved so many scientists and engineers from Germany and Japan after 2nd world war). China has moved from fabrication to design and manufacturing in the last 10–20 years, they have brought themselves to a totally different level, no more fabricating others products like iPhones, cars, airplanes ( including Boeing) for foreign companies for a contract fee, and be their own boss, Only recently China developed a aircraft development centre in xan, ask yourself where have all the Ukrainian scientists and engineers gone?

在飞机技术方面，尤其是主涡轮发动机和其他部件，中国仍然依赖外国供应商或技术支持。我认为美国在过去的30年里，特别是911之后进行了一系列的外交活动，提供了黄金机会或者说是黄金年代，美国针对伊朗、伊拉克、叙利亚等国家，干涉乌克兰等国家的国内政治事务(在俄乌战争之前)，帮助中国从这些国家获得了许多高端科学家和工程师，所以中国在经济、技术领域得到了快速的发展。(实际上，包括美国在内的几乎所有大国都在科技和经济方面实现了快速的增长。

二战后，美国赦免了德国和日本的许多科学家和工程师。）在过去的10-20年里，中国已经从加工转向了设计和制造，他们已经跻身完全不同的水平，不再为了赚取承包费用帮外国公司制造iphone、汽车、飞机(包括波音)等产品，而是开始自己当起了老板。最近中国在西安建立了一个飞机开发中心，你猜猜看，乌克兰科学家和工程师都去哪儿了？

Cze Low

Yes of course if she had her own planes, she would have saved trillions of dollars. However it was a develo phase and it was easier to buy what's available out there.

Now that China has progressed to her present advanced state and is ready to use her own planes .

是的，当然，如果中国能自己造飞机，就能节省数万亿美元。但研制飞机需要一个过程，购买现成的飞机更简单。

既然中国已经达到了现有的先进水平，中国自然可以开始启用自己的飞机。

Krishna Kumar Subramanian

You’re building a whole system, not just an aircraft.

And these systems have to be certified by European or American regulators if the aircraft has to have any credibility.

Obviously, you cannot build overnight certifiable systems with manageable costs yourself, especially for the first time, so you go to other vendors who engineer such complete systems for the major players: Boeing, Airbus, and Embraer.

你需要打造的是一个完整的系统，不仅仅是一架飞机而已。

这些系统必须得到欧洲或美国监管机构的认证。

很显然，你不可能在极短的时间内用可控的成本自己构建起可靠的系统，万事开头难，因此你需要向其他为主流飞机品牌(波音、空客和安博威)设计完整系统的供应商求助。

Honeywell/Liebherr-Aerospace: customer service and spare parts for the air management and landing gear systems on Comac’s two vessels.

Engines: CFM Leap from Safran. They were lucky they did not choose the much vaunted Pratt & Whitney Geared fan, which has been a disastrous failure and left several airlines bankrupt due to its refusal to honor commitments.

APU: Honeywell

Flight Control System: Parker Aerospace

Hydraulic and Fuel Systems: Eaton Aerospace

Avionics: GE

…and so on.

霍尼韦尔/利勃海尔-宇航：为中国商飞的两艘飞机提供空中管理和起落架系统的客户服务和备件。

发动机：赛峰CFM Leap。幸运的是，他们没有选择被名不副实的普拉特&惠特尼齿轮减速扇，这家公司因为拒绝履行承诺导致了几家航空公司破产的灾难性后果。

A辅助动力系统：霍尼韦尔

飞行控制系统：帕克航空航天公司

液压和燃料系统：伊顿航空航天公司

航空电子设备：通用电气

等等。

And these contractors will ask for a contract of at least 50 aircraft sets before even starting their design process.

You can imagine the up-front costs.

And that is just the foreign component.

Then you have the metalworking, metalforming, cabin furnishings, and a full range of tests.

这些承包商甚至在开始设计过程之前就会要求至少签订50架飞机的合同。

你可以想象一下前期成本有多大。

这还只是外来部件。

还有金属加工，金属成型，机舱装饰，以及一系列的测试。