Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China’s C919 AC104 test aircraft took off from the fourth runway of Shanghai Pudong International Airport at on August 1, 2019.
After engineers completed a number of test points and conducted initial control inspections of various aircraft systems, the maiden test flight took 1 hour and 25 minutes to complete.
AC104 is the fourth C919 flight test aircraft and will mainly be used for flight testing of avionics system, takeoff/landing performance, automatic flight system and natural icing.
Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China’s (COMAC) has already flown three C919 test aircraft in Yanliang of Xi’an, Dongying of Shandong and Nanchang of Jiangxi in China.
The static tests and other ground verification tests are in steady progress, and the development of C919 aircraft will enter the phase of high-density, high-difficulty and high-risk flight tests.
The C919 is China’s first self-developed trunk jetliner and is widely-seen as China’s first aircraft to compete directly with Boeing and Airbus. The aircraft can carry up to 168 passengers and has a range of up to 5,555km (3000 nautical miles).
