C919 likely to make debut flight in 1st quarter of 2017
China's domestically made passenger aircraft C919 might make its debut flight in the first quarter of 2017, domestic news portal thepaper.cn reported on Friday.
The C919 was off the assembly line in November 2015, ready for ground tests. On December 25, 2016, the first C919 was delivered to the trial flight center, according to the report of thepaper.cn.
The report also cited a source from Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) as saying that major experiments before the debut flight had already been completed.
The source disclosed that the C919 is likely to make its debut flight in February, but the exact flight time is to be decided as there are many details that need to be worked out.
So far, the C919 has received 570 orders. During the 11th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province, China Eastern Airlines signed a contract with COMAC to become the first customer of the C919.
The SPDB Financing Leasing and CITIC Financial Leasing Co also ordered 20 and 36 C919s, respectively, from COMAC.
