C919 Jet
As Nigeria’s air transportation was brought to its knees by the industry’s workforce, China flew its home grown C919 Jet on its maiden international trip.
The C919 Jets was manufactured by the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) and the flight operation was conducted by another government owned operator, Air China.
According to public flight data, the flight departed Beijing Capital International Airport at 3:17 pm (0717 GMT) on Wednesday and it landed in Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, at 4:58 pm (0858 GMT).
A patriotic and elated Chinese passenger, Hu Yuan, when boarding in Beinjing told AFP correspondent that he felt “a sense of pride” flying an international route on a domestically produced plane.
Civil Aviation Administration of China, CAAC
The 40-year-old Chinese expressed his wishes thus, “I hope our domestic planes continue to improve in terms of comfort and overall passenger experience — even outperforming Boeing and Airbus,” he said.
The C919 aircraft was made in China but its various components were sourced from countries in Western Europe and in the US just as Boeing, Embraer, and others do.
The narrow-body aircraft was intentionally produced to favourably compete with Boeing’s 737 series, or Airbus’s A320. Although the aircraft is yet to be certified and approved by the US and European Aviation Safety Authority, EASA, China continues to roll back the frontiers of aerospace and civil aviation especially in the cartel of aircraft manufacturing.
Beijing expectation is that the indigenously produced air plane would reduce China’s supine dependence on foreign technology and help it gain a foothold in the global aircraft manufacturing market.
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