China receives domestic aircraft production license

It has been reported that China’s first domestically produced passenger plane “C919” has obtained the production license from the national civil aviation authority.

According to the Xinhua report, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has granted the “production license” to the model that will begin mass production. The narrow-body airliner developed by the state-owned China Commercial Aircraft Company (COMAC) made its first test flight on May 14 and received its “type license” on September 30, which registered its suitability for flight.

The first delivery of single-aisle airliners, designed as the “Boeing 737” and “Airbus 320” equivalents, is scheduled for China Eastern Airlines in December.

China Eastern had reached an agreement with COMAC to buy the planes for $99 million each, with the deal signed in March 2021. China Eastern plans to use the plane for domestic flights from Shanghai to the cities of Beijing, Guangcou, Xinjiang and Qingdu.

With the launch of the “medium-haul” airliner, which is the most widely used type of aircraft in the civil aviation sector in the world, it is judged that China may have a share in the global passenger aircraft market dominated by US Boeing and European Airbus companies.

Although the C919, which began to be developed by COMAC in 2008, aims to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign sources, it is not entirely domestic as its critical components, such as the jet engine and control software, are produced by American companies like General Electric. and Honeywell. (AA)