China Economic Review
Charting China’s changing economic terrain · Since 1990
China's ARJ21-700 jet makes successful test run
July 21, 2009
China’s first domestically-developed regional ARJ21-700 jet has successfully made a trial flight of 1,300 kilometers.It took the jet about two hours to fly from Shanghai to Xi’an, the capital of northwestern China’s Shaanxi Province. The jet left its production site in Shanghai and flew to the Xi’an-based Chinese Flight Tests Establishment of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China.
That is the country’s only institute qualified to issue flight certificates for military aircraft, helicopters, aircraft engines or other aircraft equipment. The jet is expected to make further trial flights before gaining approval certificates from the CFTE.
The ARJ21-700 jet made its first trial flight in last November. It has since made some 18 trial flights totaling about 34 hours, flying at an altitude of up to 9,000 meters.
CCTV.com points out that ARJ-21 is short for "Advanced Regional Jet for the 21st Century". The plane is also the first regional jet that China has fully developed on its own. The first ARJ-21 jets are expected to be delivered to clients next year.