This collaboration began in 2017, with the joint establishment of the "Civil Aviation Composites Technology Joint Innovation Center," focusing on overcoming the technical bottlenecks in high-performance composite materials for domestically produced large aircraft. After three years of research, the collaborative team successfully developed an aviation-grade carbon fiber prepreg system with fully independent intellectual property rights. Its performance indicators reach internationally advanced levels, with a tensile strength exceeding 6,000 MPa and a compressive impact strength (CAI) exceeding 300 MPa. This achievement has been directly applied to the C919's wings, tailplane, and other major load-bearing structural components, achieving a significant weight reduction of over 25%, reducing the weight of each aircraft by 1.2 tons and saving approximately 100 tons of fuel annually.

In terms of the collaborative model, the project pioneered a new collaborative mechanism based on "demand-driven, platform-sharing, and risk-sharing." As the end user, COMAC provided a detailed list of technical requirements and airworthiness certification standards, while AVIC High-Tech integrated the R&D resources of its six affiliated research institutes to establish a complete innovation chain, from raw materials and process equipment to testing and evaluation. Particularly noteworthy is the joint investment by both parties in building Asia's first automated tape laying demonstration line for composite materials. This achieves digital control of the entire prepreg process, from -18°C refrigeration to autoclave curing, improving production process stability to 99.7%. Regarding intellectual property, the collaboration resulted in the application of 83 invention patents and the development of 12 industry standards, establishing a comprehensive independent intellectual property system.

The project's industrialization achievements are equally impressive. The Nantong industrialization base, completed in 2021, has an annual production capacity of 500,000 square meters of aviation composite materials. These products not only meet the needs of the C919 but also provide support for the ARJ21 regional airliner, generating cumulative sales revenue exceeding 1.5 billion yuan. More notably, the professional technical team of over 200 people cultivated through this project has become a leading force in the domestic aviation composite materials industry. The integrated "materials-design-manufacturing-testing" solution developed during the collaboration has also been applied to key projects such as the Long March series of launch vehicles and the Fengyun meteorological satellites, generating significant social and economic benefits.

The success of this collaboration is primarily reflected in three key areas: first, it innovated an application-oriented R&D model, ensuring the engineering applicability of R&D results through deep integration between aircraft manufacturers and material suppliers; second, it established a comprehensive innovation system encompassing every stage from basic research to industrialization; and finally, it fostered a sustainable development mechanism, ensuring the continued iteration and upgrading of technologies through the establishment of a joint innovation center and industrialization base. Currently, both parties are conducting R&D on second-generation aviation composite materials, focusing on cutting-edge technologies such as resin-based self-healing materials and intelligent monitoring fibers, which are expected to be implemented on the C929 wide-body aircraft. This case demonstrates that through close collaboration across the entire supply chain, China's composite materials industry is fully capable of overcoming technological barriers in high-end applications and achieving a leapfrog development from following to catching up and leading.