SHANGHAI, China (CCTV) — China’s domestically developed C919 and ARJ21 passenger jets successfully completed their test flights on Thursday in Shanghai.
The C919 completed its second test flight after two hours and 46 minutes in the air.
The jet took off from Shanghai Pudong International Airport and reached an altitude of 10,000 feet.
The flight time was twice that of its maiden flight in May.
“The retractable landing gear was smoothly controlled at the first try. The performance of the C919 during its test flight completely met our expectations. Now we’ll expand its flight envelope until it reaches the demands of the clients or even beyond the demands,” said Zhang Dawei, test flight engineer of the C919 unit with the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC).
The aircraft will be taken to Xi’an, capital of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, for further test flights.
The successful test flight of the C919 has made China the fourth jumbo jet producer after the United States, Western Europe and Russia.
With a standard range of 4,075 kilometers, the jet is comparable with the updated Airbus 320 and Boeing’s new generation 737.
China’s self-innovated business aircraft , the ARJ21 (Advanced Regional Jet for 21st Century), also completed its test flight on Thursday after two hours and 15 minutes in the air.
The aircraft took off from Shanghai Dachang Airbase and landed at 10:16.
“The test flights of the two aircraft showed our country is advancing towards normalization in flight evaluation before delivery and that we have entered a new level on test flights based on scientific research,” said Wang Wei, chief engineer of the flight test center with COMAC.
Two ARJ21 aircrafts have been delivered to Chengdu Airlines for operation.
Four aircraft have conducted test flights in Fujian, Qinghai and Shandong provinces as well as Shanghai for route expansion and design optimization.