Comac ARJ21 takes off

China's first locally-built regional jet, the 90-seat ARJ21 Xiangfeng manufactured by Chinese aerospace company Comac, has made its maiden commercial flight, carrying 70 passengers from Chengdu to Shanghai.

The flight took 2hr 12min and was described by Comac as “an important milestone in the development of civil aviation in China, with Chinese skies for the first time welcoming a passenger jet developed by China”.

The twin-engine ARJ21 is designed to compete with similar small passenger jets produced by Embraer and Bombardier.

Comac chairman Jin Zhuanglong told reporters at Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport after the aircraft landed that the company would continue to “optimise the design of the jet, push forward at a serialised and industrialised pace, and develop domestic and overseas markets”.

He added: “We will make efforts to build the ARJ21 as a new calling-card for China's high-end equipment manufacturing industry.”

China is keen to establish itself as a global supplier of aircraft and is also developing the C919 jet, which it hopes will compete with the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320. It also plans to produce a larger wide-body plane in a joint venture with Russia.

The ARJ21, which seats about 90 passengers, was given permission to fly domestically by China's civil aviation regulators at the end of last year.

Comac says that the ARJ21 has more than 300 orders, mainly from domestic carriers.

www.comac.cc

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