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China's homemade jet completes first test global voyageNEWSCONTENT
Story : China-Test Flight/ARJ21
Storyline
Comac ARJ21 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
ARJ21 Delayed Again, Due To Enter Service April-May 2015 | Commercial Aviation content from Aviation Week
Story : China-Test Flight/ARJ21
Storyline
A testing plane of China's homegrown ARJ21-700 jets completed its first voyage round the world totaling 30,000 kilometers and returned to the country on Monday.
The testing plane No. 104 took off from Xi'an City of northwest China's Shaanxi Province on March 15, and landed in the Windsor International Airport, Canada, 14 days later by way of China, Russia and the United States, covering 14,000 kilometers.
It tested flight in natural icing condition in Canada to prove the jets' safety and reliability while encountering mid-air frozen situations. The natural icing condition test is considered the most risky test in all trial flights.
"This is the first time that we successfully completed the natural icing test flight. It proved that the ice probing and prevention facilities of the ARJ21 jets are up to the standards of the Civil Aviation Administration of China," said Zhao Zhiqiang, the test pilot of the ARJ21-700 natural icing flight.
After the test, the plane traversed the Atlantic Ocean before back in China via Denmark, Iceland, Austria, Turkey and Kazakhstan.
The plane landed in 18 airports of ten countries during its voyage.
It marked an important step in the test flight proceedings of the ARJ21-700, said the experts, and it is also the first time that a China homegrown jet completes its journey round the world.
The ARJ21 jets are designed for regional short-distance routes within 800 kilometers. Their first number for air lines was completed, and will be launched into operation at the end of May, according to the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, the manufacturer.
Comac ARJ21 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
ARJ21 Delayed Again, Due To Enter Service April-May 2015 | Commercial Aviation content from Aviation Week
Comac says it completed the first two ARJ21s for Chengdu Airlines in late December. Aircraft MSN 103, meanwhile, has completed cold weather tests in Inner Mongolia, with temperatures as low as minus 43.2C. That included operation of the ram-air turbine in those conditions. Tests with unit MSN 104 to confirm the ARJ21's high-speed characteristics are also complete, says Comac. Those tests included determination of out-of-trim characteristics and buffeting properties, including flight at the buffet boundary.
The ARJ21 is designed to seat 90 in an all-economy arrangement.
Meanwhile, structural manufacturing is proceeding for Comac's second type, the 158-seat C919 mainline airliner, with Avic's Chengdu civil aircraft plant completing the first major assembly for the nose of the first prototype. The assembly, including the windscreen frame, is the structure enclosing the cockpit, bounded by the forward bulkhead and the floor. The C919, so far delayed by only about a year, is due to make its first flight next year. The first delivery probably cannot be made before 2017, compared with the original target of 2016.
Delays are detracting from the ARJ21's competitiveness, which in any case has been in doubt because of Comac's inexperience in development. While the manufacturer, a state agency registered as a company, has been challenged in integrating the ARJ21's systems to extract optimal performance, the technology that it has been working with has been aging.
The problem is particularly evident in propulsion. The aircraft was launched with what was then a quite new engine, the General Electric CF34-10, used by the similarly sized Embraer E Jet, which had entered development three years earlier. But by 2008 Mitsubishi Aircraft had chosen the more fuel-efficient Pratt & Whitney PW1217G geared turbofan for its MRJ, also close to the ARJ21 in size. A year ago Embraer decided to drop the CF34-10 and switch to the Pratt & Whitney engine for an extensively revamped E Jet design.
Luo's prediction of entry into service next year presupposes that the ARJ21 will finally be certified. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) is overseeing the airworthiness certification process with guidance from the FAA. If the CAAC handles the ARJ21's application to the satisfaction of the FAA, the U.S. agency will recognize Chinese airworthiness certificates for later projects, possibly including the C919. To achieve that recognition, the CAAC need not certify the ARJ21 as airworthy, however. A proper process resulting in rejection of Comac's application for certification would also suffice.