A civilian aircraft test flight center built by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) opened on January 14, 2016, in eastern China’s Shandong province.
The Dongying City center will be primarily used to test the C919 aircraft, the first domestically produced large passenger aircraft, which was unveiled in November 2015.
It will also be the location for test flights of the regional jet ARJ21-700, China’s first airliner independently designed in accordance with international standards. Training of test pilots and test flight engineers will also be conducted at the center.
Once it is cleared for commercial use, the C919 has been designed to compete with the Airbus 320 and Boeing’s new-generation 737. It has 158 seats, a standard range of 4,075km and an extended range of 5,555km.
The ARJ21-700 had undergone six-years of grueling tests before the civil aviation authority awarded it accreditation in 2014. The five-seat per row jet was awarded airworthiness certificates from both the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the US Federal Aviation Agency.
January 14, 2016
