GE Aviation and Aviation Industries of China (AVIC) will are to a new joint venture company to develop and market integrated avionic systems for commercial aircraft.

The new avionics company will offer open architecture avionics and services for future commercial aircraft programs and be based in China along with a technology centre of excellence by GE.

GE CEO and chairman Jeff Immelt said the new company combines GE and AVIC capabilities to develop commercial integrated systems to meet aviation’s growing demands.

GE Aviation Systems business president and CEO Lorraine Bolsinger said their immediate focus is to jointly bid the best, competitive solutions to compete for the COMAC C919 narrow-body aircraft programme.

“This includes an open architecture Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) platform,” she said.

“Aviation is a national priority in China to everyone’s benefit. The joint venture creates a major integrated supplier to airframers worldwide.”

The joint venture is expected to be launched by mid-2010 subject to regulatory approvals.