China’s first domestically developed airliner, the Comac C919, is Beijing’s answer to the Airbus A320 and Boeing B737 and hopes to interrupt the dominance of Western planemakers within the aviation market.
The Chinese passenger jet can carry 175 passengers and has a spread of 5,500 km and first rolled off the assembly lines in Shanghai in November 2015.
Thepaper.cn also reported that the primary C919 was delivered to the test flight center on Christmas Day 2016. People’s Daily on Monday confirmed that the C919 is scheduled for its debut flight in the primary half of this 12 months.
The project, launched in 2008, despite repeated early delays, has received 570 orders from 23 clients including Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern and Citic Financial Leasing.
According to a report prepared by Lent in 2015, deliveries to its first customer, ICBC Leasing, were scheduled to happen after 2018. Comac also said that 6,865 aircraft may very well be delivered in China by 2035.
Although the aircraft was developed and assembled domestically, 16 foreign corporations supplied the essential components. The Lent reported that in 2014, China supplied parts value $482 million to American aircraft manufacturers.
With a maximum range of 5,500 km, the New York-based C919 could potentially fly to the US West Coast, as far south as Bogota and as far north as Vancouver.
China has long desired to develop its own jets and challenge the worldwide dominance of Boeing and Airbus within the trillion-dollar aerospace manufacturing industry.
Industry insiders say it should be an extended time before the C919 competes with Western models on the international arena, where certifications are a key barrier to its exports and a pilot shortage is one other barrier.
Source: South China Morning Post
