China’s first native narrow body passenger airliner, Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China’s COMAC C919, has been awarded commercial certification from the Civil Administration of China (CAAC).
The certification was given in a ceremony that was held at Beijing Capital Airport. After being certified to fly, China will enter the commercial aviation market. With the entry, China would directly compete with France’s Airbus A320 and America’s Boeing 737. The aircraft will make China self-reliant in the commercial passenger flight market.
The Civil Administration of China (CAAC), the country’s aviation regulator, certified COMAC C919 after it completed all test flights successfully. The C919 has passed the airworthiness criteria of Airworthiness Standards for Transport Aircraft (CCAR-25-R3). According to the speculations, the aircraft will be a part of China Eastern Airlines.
The C919’s formal introduction could happen within the next two years, while mass production is anticipated to start between 2027 and 2029.
According to Simple Flying’s report, many Chinese investors like Hainan Airlines, Air China, and China Construction Bank have shown interest. Moreover, reports also suggest China Eastern Airlines has signed a contract with COMAC to purchase five planes in March 2021. Nothing about any non-Chinese investors has been revealed by the company as of yet.
The C919 finished its first pre-commercial flight test in Shanghai in May 2022. It is the first commercial aircraft that China developed independently. The jet has 158-168 seats and a medium range of 4,075–5,555 km, which makes it quite close to the Boeing 737 Max and variants of the Airbus A320 family. It completed its initial flight in 2017.
The state-owned Aero Engine Corporation of China started building the country’s first turbofan engine, the CJ-1000A, a decade ago. The corporation aimed to make progress on the project within five years using components and technologies from the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy.
In May 2017, the first aircraft took to the sky after high-speed taxi tests on a finished prototype started 2017. In December of the same year, a second prototype was launched, but the process moved very slowly. By October 2019, prototypes three, four, and five had all started to fly, while prototype six, the final test campaign aircraft, did the same in December. Since then, the test aircraft have been put through a variety of tests, including avionics and electrical system conformance and extreme weather circumstances.
