Development
The development of ARJ21 regional jet is a key project in the China's "10th Five-Year Plan". It began in March 2002 and is led by the government-controlled ACAC consortium. The maiden flight of the ARJ21 was initially planned to take place in 2005 with commercial service beginning 18 months afterwards.
However, the design work was delayed and the final trial production stage did not begin until June 2006. The first aircraft (serial number 101) was rolled out on 21 December 2007 with plans for a maiden flight in March 2008. This was first delayed to 21 September 2008 and finally took place on 28 November 2008 at Shanghai's Dachang Airfield. The plane completed a long distance test flight on 15 July 2009, flying from Shanghai to Xi'an in 2 hours 19 minutes, over a distance of 1,300 km. The second ARJ21 plane (serial number 102) completed the same test flight from Shanghai to Xi'an on 24 August 2009. The third plane (serial number 103) had rolled out by then, and completed the test flight on 12 September 2009. The fourth aircraft (CN 104) was flying by November 2010. By August 2011, static, flutter and crosswind tests had all been completed. The aircraft was expected to be delivered to customers in late 2010, starting with Chengdu Airlines.
The ACAC consortium aimed to manufacture 11 ARJ21s a year by 2010, and 30 per year by 2015. In 2009 the consortium was reorganized and became a part of COMAC.
Read more about this topic: Comac ARJ21
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