First of all, I am by no mean try to demean the achieve of Chinese Aviation. But having worked in the industry, I can tell you this, C919 is most likely not going to be success than the next gen (C929 or wharever)
That said, you are the one that said "Confirmed" I merely told you MOU and LOI are not confirmed, it does not matter what the Chinese government do or did not do, it does not change the fact and the definition of MOU and LOI. You can call it trivial, that still wrong.
And I have not heard of any counter argument about 1008 being a small number, well, it may be a big number for you, but for an aircraft manufacture company, it is VERY small. Again, if A320 Neo only have 1008 order, it would have been shelved by Airbus, profit margin is as slim as it is. (Selling 1000 is the same as selling 1/7 of the actual order, which roughly translate to only earning 1/7 of 3 billions profits, that's mean making 428 millions) It also worth notice that the R&D cost of C919 are into 10 billions dollars, while A320neo R&D only cost 1 billions Euros
Whether or not C919 will sell in the future is unknown, so yes, you can tag me and laugh at me if and when I am wrong, but you need to realise this could go either way...
About the sale date, actually I was wrong, C919 have been selling since 2010. After the mock up were debuted in Zhuhai Airshow.
Here are an article written in 16 November 2010 It states COMAC announce 100 order for C919
https://centreforaviation.com/analy...four-gecas-and-cdb-leasing-get-on-board-39890
You can probably search COMAC website and you probably can find their customer list and their order date as well as number of order.
And finally, I do have an girl friend, thanks for asking.
There are 2 reasons.
1st) Money. It is cheaper to buy off the shelve technology for the first product. I mean, COMAC is just start making Narrow-Body jet, so I would assume they lack of the technology to actually do it. You may think COMAC have experience on making military jet. However, making a jet that carry 2 people and a ton of missile is quite different than making a plane to carry 100+ people and tons of fuel and cargo. It is always better and cheaper to use existing technology rather than research your own.
2nd) Certification. Each crucial part would need to certify, from ADS to APU system down to the Black Box. Everything need certification, and if you make your own, say an APU, then you will need to put that APU to FAA or CASA or EU authority. Which takes time and money, which will delay the project, it make more sense to buy existing APU and put it on the aircraft so what you going to need is one big check (Air Worthiness Certificate)
About the quality, it will be sub par with current technology used by the Boeing and Airbus, because those company (like Honeywell or Parker) have exclusive deal with Boeing and Airbus. Which mean if you buy off the shelve product, they are not top of the line. I mean, that is quite logical I think.