China’s home-made large passenger aircraft, the C919, has completed its maiden flight after nearly two decades of production by COMAC
China’s first domestically manufactured large passenger airplane has completed its first commercial flight. The 164-seater C919 airplane which relied on Western components was seen on State TV rising to the sky in Shanghai on Sunday. The flight’s 130 passengers onboard the maiden plane arrived Beijing within 3 hours after it took off from Shanghai.
The C919 has been under development for nearly two decades by the Commercial Aviation Corporation of China (COMAC), a state-backed corporation, and is intended to compete with single-aisle aircrafts manufactured by Western Companies like Boeing and Airbus prototypes. The deteriorating relations between China and West has emboldened several China’s attempts to cut heavy dependence on the West. However, the C919 aircraft production could not have been completed without the use of major components from Western Corporations.
China’s first home-made domestic aircraft, the ARJ21 which had a maximum capacity of 97 seats went into service in 2016. The current airplane can carry more passengers and travel longer distance than the ARJ21.
The flight was operated by China’s Eastern Airlines which had also ordered 5 of the newly manufactured plane. According to the state-backed COMAC, it plans to produce 150 C919 planes yearly within the next five years. COMAC have so far confirmed several orders of the new aircraft.
In 2017, the C919 aircraft completed its first test flight and had also undergone several test flights since then.
For China’s President Xi Jinping and several Chinese, the completion of the C919 airplane and the successful maiden flight is a great feat that is fulfilling Beijing’s bid to dominate the high-tech industries.
ASVEK Science & Tech 