China’s home-grown answer to the dominance of Airbus and Boeing in the single-aisle jet market, the 168-seat C919, has just taken to the skies on its maiden flight.
Manufactured by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), the C919 was initially scheduled for a first flight in 2014, but suffered a number of delays. So much so, that ground testing for the maiden flight only took place last month.
Its testing programme is likely to take about three years until the aircraft can be granted its airworthiness certificate, then it has to be safety-approved by the US Federal Aviation Association (FAA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to fly in their airspace.
Comac has announced 570 orders for the C919, but analysts close to the scene suggest that firm orders are probably closer to 100.
