COMAC completes production, test flight center

The nation's first self-developed production and test flight center for China's commercial aircraft developer - Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) - was completed on Saturday, which will help accelerate commercial operation for domestically made airplanes. 

The production and test flight center, based in Nanchang, capital of East China's Jiangxi Province, is a comprehensive facility for aircraft interior completion, painting, test flight support, aircraft delivery and maintenance. Its completion shows the country has forged a relatively complete aircraft industry chain including research and design, production and test flights, as well as delivery and operation, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

With an investment of 2 billion yuan ($308 million), construction of the center started in April 2019. It will mainly be responsible for producing COMAC's ARJ21 jetliner, which is China's first turbofan regional passenger jetliner.

The project is expected to achieve production capacity of about 30 aircraft each year.

In November last year, deliveries of the ARJ21 jetliner reached 38, with the latest aircraft delivered to Jiangxi Air, according to COMAC. 

Apart from the regional jetliner, COMAC is also the developer of the C919 large passenger aircraft.

The C919 has 158-174 seats and a range of up to 5,555 kilometers. The plane conducted its successful maiden flight in 2017.