SHANGHAI: China’s homegrown C919 narrow-body jet, designed to problem the Airbus-Boeing duopoly, is nearing qualification as its test aeroplanes completed all of the test flight tasks, the organization said on Sunday (Jul 23).
The state-owned manufacturer Commercial Airplane Corp of China and taiwan (COMAC) said on its official social networking account that the 6 test planes have got finished the testing tasks as the programme enters the final stage associated with receiving a certificate in the Civil Aviation Management of China that is required for commercial functions.
That would tag a milestone in China’s ambitions to climb up the manufacturing supply chain. China’s COMAC is now effectively the third option in the market for planes with more than a hundred seats, after Boeing and Airbus struck deals to take over production of rival planes made by Embraer and Bombardier.
Designed to compete directly with the Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus 320neo families, the particular C919 aircraft programme has faced a range of technical issues and tougher US export controls, after being launched in 2008, Reuters has reported.
The release customer is the state-owned China Eastern Airlines, which has placed an order for 5 C919 jets within March last year. Changjiang Daily, a paper owned by the local government of Wuhan, mentioned in a report on Jul 8 the particular airline is scheduled to take the first shipping in August.
Assembled in The far east, the plane relies greatly on Western parts, including engines plus avionics.