“China’s First Large Passenger Aircraft Successfully Completes Maiden Commercial Flight”

Jakarta –

China’s first large passenger aircraft successfully completed its first commercial flight.

Chinese state television showed the C919 taking off from Shanghai for Beijing on Sunday (28/05) morning.

The aircraft was produced by the Chinese Commercial Aviation Company (Comac), with the hope of breaking the domination of Airbus and Boeing.

However, the aircraft with a total of 164 seats still relies heavily on Western components, including the engines and avionics of the electronic equipment used in an airplane.

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On its maiden flight, the Shanghai-Beijing trip, with more than 130 passengers, was completed in just under three hours.

“I have great confidence in our country,” said passenger Liu Peng.

he told the news agency Reuters that the C919 “is bound to get better and better”.

“I feel very emotional,” said 21-year-old student and aviation enthusiast, LV Boyuan, who was planning to board C919.

Designed to compete with European-made Airbus and US-made Boeing aircraft, the C919 can carry more passengers and has a longer range than the ARJ21, China’s first domestic jet in service since 2016.

China Eastern Airline, China’s own airline, has ordered five new, larger aircraft.

Comac, which plans to produce 150 aircraft annually within five years, says it has received more than 1,200 orders for the C919.

However, some experts say most of these orders are believed to be initial commitments from domestic customers, which do not yet have the force of law.

President Xi Jinping, who sat in the cockpit of a mock C919 years ago, described the project as one of China’s most innovative achievements.

The C919 performed its first test flight in 2017 and has undergone several similar flights since then.

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