Bombardier Inc.'s planned CSeries aircraft may have the same cockpit as China's first passenger jet, helping the planemaker pare research costs and challenge Boeing Co. and Airbus SAS.

An accord may be signed soon with Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China to cooperate in areas including cockpits, technical publications and procurement, Chief Executive Officer Pierre Beaudoin said in a Bloomberg Television interview. A shared cockpit could aid sales of the CSeries and COMAC's C919 by cutting airlines' training and operating expenses.

"If we have common customers and there is a common cockpit, it makes it easier for everybody," Beaudoin said yesterday in Beijing. The CSeries will seat 100 to 149 passengers, while the C919 will carry as many as 168.

Bombardier also expects to win CSeries orders "shortly" from Chinese carriers as the Montreal-based planemaker nears the start of deliveries next year, Beaudoin said. Airbus and Boeing are revamping their narrow-body models to blunt competition in a segment that accounts for about 60 percent of the global fleet.

"I feel very confident that we are getting close" to the first Chinese CSeries purchase, Beaudoin said. Worldwide orders totaled 133 at the end of 2011, led by 40 from Indianapolis-based Republic Airways Holdings Inc.

Beaudoin reiterated that Bombardier expects to have the first CSeries ready for a test flight this year. The C919 is due to make its first flight in 2014, with deliveries starting two years later.

Bombardier, which also makes trains, separately expects China to resume spending on high-speed railways, Beaudoin said. The country slowed construction last year after 40 people were killed in a crash.

"China will continue to invest in high-speed rail because that's the right thing to do," he said. The high-speed construction slowdown hasn't damped demand in train markets such as subways and so-called airport people movers, he said.