My China Dream | Cyrille Breard

Cyrille Breard came to a career crossroad in early 2010. He had just completed his MBA in technology management from the University of Washington in Seattle, and had to choose between being an employee or an entrepreneur.

Expecting to be a part of the development of China's first commercial giant aircraft, he decided on the former.

With the help of his Chinese wife, Chen Shuihong, Breard sent his resume to Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd.

The 44-year-old American engineer of French descent has since become the principal noise engineering expert of Comac's Shanghai Aircraft Design and Research Institute, China's leading aircraft design institute responsible for the country's commercial giant aircraft research and development.

Last July, Breard and his team went to Holland and performed the nation's first noise test on the scale model of the C919 large passenger aircraft, which was regarded as an important step for the aircraft's future to compete in the international market.

The C919 will be the largest commercial airliner designed and built in China and its first flight is expected to take place in 2014.

Breard and his co-workers are now eagerly planning the first flight test for aircraft noise in China. "For the certification process, the noise of the aircraft has to be controlled within certain standards," Breard explains.

Lower noise uncertainty will not only guarantee a safe and environmental friendly flight, but also provide passengers a quieter journey. Furthermore, too much noise will shorten an aircraft's life, Breard says.

A lot of international airports also have strict restrictions on aircraft noise during takeoff and landing.

"If our aircrafts cannot reach these standards, it will be impossible for Comac to sell them to airlines that operate flights to these airports," says Breard, who spent 10 years with Boeing.

He admits that working in a completely new environment brings opportunities and challenges.

For example, he says, at Boeing, every process is already well established. But in Comac, everything is new. The employees have to set up the processes and get approval from different departments to make things happen.

But thanks to his Chinese wife, Breard is able to understand Chinese thinking and translate it into Western mindset.

His rich working experience in different cultures - he worked in Athens, London, and Seattle for many years before coming to Shanghai - also contributes to his ability to adapt quickly, says colleague Dennis Raymond John Scott, an assistant chief designer at Comac.

One of the challenges in China, Breard says, is the lack of training on the importance of process management.

He brought that up during the recent meeting with China's top political leader Xi Jinping. He suggested bridging the gap between university curricula and industry needs.

Breard has recently been appointed as a consultant of Zhejiang University in Zhejiang's capital Hangzhou, and says he will make sure that project management is included in the curriculum.

"It's our mission to inspire young people in carving a new page of history here in China," he says.

wang_ying@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 01/24/2013 page18)