COMAC expands use of PTC solutions for enterprise product lifecycle management

PTC, the Product Development Company®, today announced that Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. (COMAC) has expanded its use of Windchill® software to support its development of commercial aircraft. Windchill serves as the technology infrastructure for its Integrated Digital Environment for Aircraft Lifecycle (IDEAL) program. Windchill, PTC's product lifecycle management (PLM) software, provides a single, interoperable platform for improving collaboration, automating processes and managing data across the product lifecycle.

The rapid growth of the Chinese economy has created a strong demand for commercial aircraft, resulting in a significant increase in the number of Chinese airports, and a growing demand for locally-developed civilian aircraft. As the only company working on the development of commercial aircraft in China, the newly founded COMAC is focused on deploying innovative, best-of-breed product development technology to improve its overall competitiveness. COMAC is just entering the commercial aircraft business, but intends rapidly to become one of the world's leading commercial aircraft manufacturers.

After an extensive review of competing PLM solutions, COMAC selected Windchill as the technology platform for its IDEAL program. The goal of the IDEAL program is to improve collaboration by delivering unified product information across all roles involved with aircraft production – from design and test to manufacture and service. As the technology infrastructure "backbone" supporting IDEAL, PTC's Windchill provides a single, authoritative source for all product information, supporting access across a wide range of tools, including CAD, CAE, CAM, TDM, and EDA.

"PTC has maintained a long-term relationship with COMAC and is pleased to support its expansion to large aircraft development, manufacture and after-market service," said James E. Heppelmann, President and Chief Executive Officer, PTC. "COMAC's subsidiary companies have been partnering with PTC since 2003. During this period, Windchill has been used successfully as the single system for the ARJ21 CPC and C919 IDEAL projects. The successful adoption of Windchill for strategic product lifecycle management will contribute to COMAC's success as it endeavors to become one of the world's leading commercial aircraft manufacturers."