The first large passenger jet made in China just completed its maiden flight

The first large passenger jet made in China just completed its maiden flight

China’s first large passenger jet just completed its maiden flight(पहली उड़ान) today (May 5), but it will have to wait at least three years before it carries actual passengers(यात्रियों). One year behind the original schedule, the made-in-China C919, manufactured by state-owned company Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), took off from Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport and completed a 90-minute journey.  

The flight puts China in the ranks of the small group of nations like the US and Germany who have developed home grown large airliners. Roughly the same size as Boeing’s 737, the 168-seat C919 carried five people including two pilots, a flying observer and two engineers.  Already the second-largest commercial aviation market for passengers in the world, China is expected to surpass the US by 2024. It also wants to move into the global jet market, which is estimated(अनुमानित) to be worth $2 trillion over the next two decades. Already, COMAC has received 20 orders for the C919 from the US-based aircraft lessor GE Capital Aviation Services, amid(के बीच) a total of 570 orders from domestic and overseas companies. These sales could bring the company as much as $28.5 billion (link in Chinese), according to Shanghai-based financial publication Yicai.