EDM delivered C919 Mockup making an impact at the Paris Airshow

20 June 2011

Training and simulation specialists EDM played a key role in one of the world’s newest and most exciting passenger aircraft, the Chinese-built COMAC C919.

EDM supplied COMAC with the full engineering mock-up of the C919 cockpit/ fuselage, making its European debut at the Paris Air show. It was a great privilege for EDM to be involved in China’s flagship aerospace project. The mock-up highlights all new design features of the C919 aircraft and will not only to be used as an engineering aid but will also serve as a prototype simulator for Flight Crew training.

The full-size assembly embodies an 18-metre fuselage section complete with high-fidelity Flight Deck, cockpit displays, passenger seating, in-flight entertainment system and a range of detailed features. EDM’s specialist engineering team and representatives of COMAC’s aircraft design group worked in close collaboration to perfect its ergonomic design.

The COMAC contract represents a further expansion of EDM’s successful relationship with China’s aerospace industries, which has grown in strength thanks to strategic partners in China and the support of UKTI and embassy staff in Beijing, Shanghai and the UK.

During the past two years, EDM has supplied a Boeing 787 Door Trainer to China Southern, B737 Door Trainers to Xiamen Airlines and has also manufactured and supplied other simulators – including an A330 Door Trainer – to the Shanghai Training School, administered by the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Currently EDM are working on a project to supply Air China with two highly complex cabin crew training simulators, with three-axis motion systems.

Managing Director, Kevin Bird explains:

“We have worked hard not just on the excellence of our products but also on developing partnerships in China, that have given us the foundation on which to build these export opportunities.”

EDM, based in Manchester, includes many of the world’s major airlines among its customers utilising OEM airframe manufacturers computer-generated design data, to manufacture precise reproductions of the equipment cabin crew will encounter in operational service. Their extensive range of training equipment covers most modern aircraft types – including Airbus A320, A330, A380 and Boeing 737, 777 and the new generation 787 Dreamliner. EDM has also been fundamental in providing training equipment to support the new Sukhoi Superjet SJ100, delivering evacuation and Door Trainers to both Venice and Moscow.