Jul. 21 – U.S.-based manufacturing conglomerate Honeywell has already won three contracts for Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China’s upcoming C919 civil aircraft program and hopes to win several more by the end of 2010, according to the company’s head of Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

“We have submitted proposals for several mechanical and avionic parts,” Honeywell’s EMEA Chief Paolo Carmassi said in an interview with Reuters on Monday at the Farnborough Air Show. “Final decisions should be made in the weeks to come.”

It has been reported that Honeywell’s third and latest contract, to supply the C919 program with flight management systems, was won at a price tag of US$1 billion and adds to Honeywell’s other recent agreements to supply the C919 aircraft with cockpits, braking systems and on-board electric power units. Although Honeywell plans to actively pursue more contracts with the C919, analysts say that the agreed-upon contracts are already predicted to bring in over US$10 billion by the end of the program’s lifespan.

“There’s a new [jetmaker] we want to partner with and provide products and services for the long run,” Tim Mahoney, president of Honeywell’s aerospace division, told The Wall Street Journal, adding that, “this is about a region building an aerospace industry.”

Honeywell already has some 350 engineers in China and is already immersed in plans to set up an air-traffic-control research and design lab in Shanghai, according to Mahoney.

The single-aisle C919 jetliner will be the largest commercial aircraft ever made by China and is set to be unveiled in 2014. The new jetliner looks to compete against other single-aisle aircraft like the Airbus’ A320 and Boeing’s B737, both of which are their airlines most profitable planes. Beijing hopes to have 2,300 to 2,500 C919s operational within 20 years to take on a third of the domestic market.