Published : 2025-05-05
On May 5, 2017, China's first homegrown large passenger aircraft, the C919, successfully completed its maiden flight at Shanghai Pudong Airport, symbolising that the C919 has officially moved from the research and development phase to the practical application stage.
The maiden flight began at 2 p.m., lasted for more than an hour, and completed a series of test missions during the process, including ground checks, functional checks of various systems during climbing, and flight tests in different states such as simulated approach, landing, and go-around after reaching the maiden flight area.
At that time, the C919 passed a series of trials and successfully completed its maiden flight.
The name "C919" has a special meaning.
"C" is the first letter of "China" and also the first letter of COMAC, the abbreviation of the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China.
It also implies Mainland China's ambition to join the international large passenger aircraft market, hoping to compete with "Airbus" and "Boeing," forming a triumvirate of "ABC" in the international large passenger aircraft manufacturing industry.
The first "9" signifies eternity, and "19" indicates that the maximum passenger capacity of the aircraft is 190 seats.
In addition to "C919," people also refer to this aircraft as "homegrown large passenger aircraft." Generally, "large aircraft" refers to transport aircraft with a maximum take-off weight of over 100 tonnes and military aircraft with a range of up to 3,000 kilometres or civil aircraft with more than 100 seats.
Generally, in Mainland China, aircraft with over 150 seats are called "large passenger aircraft," while those with fewer than 100 seats are called "regional aircraft."
From the beginning of research and development to its rollout at the final assembly manufacturing centre of COMAC in 2015, to the maiden flight at Shanghai Pudong Airport, it took the C919 10 years.
The C919 is the first large passenger aircraft independently designed by Mainland China.
Enterprises such as Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, Hongdu Aviation Industry Group, Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, and Xi'an Aircraft Industry Group collaborated on the design and development of the nose, fuselage, tail, and wings.
However, key components such as the engines and landing gear were designed in China and then produced by foreign companies, following the characteristics and production model of today's international civil aviation manufacturing, which is "independent design, global procurement."
Nevertheless, the most critical part of the C919's assembly integration was still entirely completed by Mainland China.
