Beijing, China — GE Aviation and AVIC Systems of China are forming a new joint venture (JV) company to develop and market integrated avionics systems for commercial aircraft customers.
Announced at GE’s Clean Technology Week in China, Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of GE and Lin Zuoming, president of AVIC, signed a framework agreement for open architecture avionics. Their goal is to launch a new joint-venture company by mid-2010, subject to receiving all required regulatory approvals.
The new avionics company, to be headquartered in China, will offer fully integrated, open architecture avionics and services for future commercial aircraft programs. GE will leverage its avionics capabilities and China Technology Center in Shanghai to create a technology center of excellence to serve the commercial aviation market.
The company plans to jointly bid for the COMAC C919 narrow-body aircraft program, which includes an open architecture Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) platform.
The JV is also expected to create about 200 jobs in the U.S.
Click here for GE’s podcast related to the announcement.