What Is Comac ARJ21? China’s 1st Independently Developed Aircraft Takes Off With 70 Onboard

China’s first domestically manufactured regional passenger jet took off Tuesday morning from the southwest Chengdu to Shanghai in the east. The Comac ARJ21 Xiangfeng is a twin-engined regional jet that carried 70 passengers aboard on its maiden flight.

The aircraft, which has been manufactured by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd, has a maximum passenger capacity of 90 and a maximum travel of over 1,242 miles.

"This plane filled the gap of market research, development, promotion, technology development, manufacturing and customer services of commercial planes after almost 20 years' efforts. It gives us precious experiences and we have learned a lot. It also laid a solid foundation to develop large civil aircraft," Wu Xingshi, former chief designer of ARJ21, reportedly said.

The airline reportedly said that the carrier has trained eight captains to pilot the ARJ21 while 52 flight attendants have been trained to attend to passengers on board.

The passenger plane will fly between Chengdu and Shanghai every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, local media reports said.