China’s first domestically-designed commercial airliner makes its maiden flight

In what could be the most significant development in global commercial aviation since the prototype of the first Airbus airliner (the A300) made its maiden flight in late 1972, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China’s (Comac’s) C919 single-aisle airliner made its first flight, from Shanghai Pudong International Airport, at 14.00 local time on Friday. The new aircraft is powered by two CFM International Leap-1C engines. The flight lasted one hour and 19 minutes, with the aircraft touching down at 15.19 local time. As planned, it kept its undercarriage down for the entire flight. The five-strong flight test crew were charged with checking 15 parameters during the flight, and, after the flight, Comac reported that all these tests had been successfully carried out. Chinese State television reported, before the flight, that the aircraft would not exceed an altitude of 3 000 m and not fly faster than 300 km/h.