China's ARJ21-700 jet starts cold-weather trial
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The country's first homegrown regional jet ARJ21-700 is being tested to see how well it performs in the extreme cold of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China's flight testing establishment said Sunday.
The 78- to 90-seat aircraft completed a 3-hour flight from Xi'an in Shaanxi Province to Manzhouli City, Inner Mongolia, Thursday, according to the jet's manufacturer -- the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac).
A spokesman with the company confirmed the jet's cold-weather trial would continue for a week to test the performance of its hydraulics and other functions in Manzhouli, where the daily average temperature is 30 below zero.
The jet has a maximum flight range of 3,700 kilometers and maximum altitude of 11,900 meters.
So far, ARJ21-700 has completed more than 900 hours of tests during 400 trial flights since November 2008, when the plane made its first trial flight in Shanghai.
Comac is working to get U.S.Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification. If achieved, the ARJ21 will be the first Chinese commercial aircraft to receive U.S. approval.
China's AVIC International Holding Corporation signed a deal with Comac to sell 100 ARJ21-700 baseline models overseas at an air show held last November in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, which brought the number of the jet orders to 340 in total.
