China’s C919 in maiden flight

The C919, China’s first domestically designed and built regional airliner, made its maiden flight on 5 May and landed one hour and 20 minutes later. With the flight, China joins the ranks of the few nations that have developed homegrown large airliners: the US, Russia, Brazil, Canada, UK, France and Germany. Developed and manufactured by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), the 168-seat C919 is approximately the same size as Airbus’s A320 and Boeing’s 737-800. While the Chinese will endeavor to market the type to international operators, the C919’s main customers will logically be China’s domestic airlines.