China on Friday launched its first large passenger jet, in what could become a challenge to industry giants Boeing and Airbus.
China’s first home-built large passenger jet glided into Shanghai skies on Friday, a breakthrough in its soaring ambitions to launch a new era in aviation and upend the dominance of American-produced airplanes.
Spectators crowded onto the tarmac and cheered as the green-tipped C919 jetliner rumbled down the runway at Pudong International Airport and disappeared in the smoggy air. China Central Television showed the broadcast live, including two pilots in the cockpit clad in bright orange jumpsuits.
More than 1.4 million people watched the flight through the news organization’s social media account.
The plane won’ t go into service for at least two years, and it will take even longer before it comes close to matching industry leaders Boeing and Airbus. But the maiden flight represented something else: China’s ascendance from an impoverished nation once dependent on factory output to a sophisticated leader dedicated to high-tech advancement.
State media called the flight “another fulfillment of a Chinese dream.”
Friday’s takeoff occurred the week after China launched its first domestically built aircraft carrier. This hands two significant victories to President Xi Jinping, who is seeking to cement his legacy before a Communist Party leadership shuffle this fall. His “Made in China 2025” plan aims to enhance domestic production through innovation.
Jetliners like this one “reflect the country’s industrial level, international competitiveness and comprehensive power, ” Xu Jifeng, who helped design the plane for state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, or Comac, told the television network. “If the C919 is successful, China will be one of the few countries that has the capability to research, develop and manufacture such large jets.”
Comac describes the plane as “the flower” and “pearl” of modern manufacturing.
