{Single-aisle plane can carry up to 168 passengers and is meant to rival Airbus and Boeing aircraft.}<\/p>\n
The first large Chinese-made passenger jet has taken off on its maiden flight, a key milestone for a country seeking a place in the global aviation market.<\/p>\n
The C919 single-aisle jet, which can hold up to 168 passengers, soured over Pudong international airport in the commercial hub Shanghai as a crowd of thousands cheered.<\/p>\n
China is one of the biggest aviation markets, but relies on foreign-made aircraft and has long sought to enter the lucrative global jet market, which is estimated to be worth $2 trillion over the next 20 years. <\/p>\n
The maiden test flight had been pushed back at least twice since 2014 due to production issues. Friday’s flight included a skeleton crew of five people and carried no passengers. <\/p>\n
“It is important for the Chinese government to show that its industrial processes are on par with the West or are heading in that direction,” he said. <\/p>\n
{{C919 must ‘prove itself’ }} <\/p>\n
While the 39-metre long plane is made in China, foreign firms are playing key roles by supplying systems as well as engines.<\/p>\n
The Chinese plane is touted to rival to the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737, but a spokesman for the aircraft’s maker said it cannot compare. <\/p>\n
“You can’t compare us to Boeing or Airbus, they’re in a different strategic stage … We took half a century to solve the first strategic issue [of plane development], it will also take many years to solve the second [market] problem,” Jeff Cheng, a spokesman for the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), told Reuters news agency prior to the maiden flight. <\/p>\n
Ballantyne said it will be years before the C919 will be able to fully compete with Western-made planes. <\/p>\n
“This Chinese aircraft will have to prove itself in operation before any Western airline will even consider purchasing it,” he said.<\/p>\n
Ballantyne added that “it is very unlikely that it will be able to compete in terms of technology and economics with the new-generation aircraft” produced by of Boeing and Airbus.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of orders<\/p>\n
If Friday’s maiden flight is successful, COMAC, the aircraft’s maker, will seek certification from China’s civil aviation authority and foreign regulators.<\/p>\n
COMAC has already received 570 orders and commitments from 23 customers, mainly Chinese-owned carriers and leasing companies. <\/p>\n
The safety certification of the new plane – which state media says will have a catalog price tag of around $50 million, less than half that of a Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 – could be among the biggest issues for the C919 internationally.<\/p>\n
Questions remain regarding the safety approvals needed for the C919 to secure a foothold outside of China. <\/p>\n
Chinese airlines are expected drive demand over the next two decades, buying nearly 7,000 planes – mostly from Boeing and Airbus. <\/p>\n
China has dreamed of building its own civil aircraft since the 1970s when Jiang Qing, leader Mao Zedong’s wife and a member of the notorious “Gang of Four”, personally backed an attempt to do so. But the Y-10’s heavy weight made it impractical and only three were ever made.<\/p>\n
China’s first domestically-made regional jet, the twin-engine regional ARJ21, flew its passengers in June 2016, eight years after its first test flight.<\/p>\n
The development of the C919 a key step on the path laid out by Chinese leaders to transform the country into a creator of profitable technology.<\/p>\n
Source:Al Jazeera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Single-aisle plane can carry up to 168 passengers and is meant to rival Airbus and Boeing aircraft.} The first large Chinese-made passenger jet has taken off on its maiden flight, a key milestone for a country seeking a place in the global aviation market. The C919 single-aisle jet, which can hold up to 168 passengers, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-34383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34383"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=34383"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=34383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}