China should accelerate the development of new turbofan-powered branch-line passenger plane, Sun Laiyan, an official with the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, said Thursday.
He said at an aviation forum that China's aviation enterprises had carried out a lot of project demonstration and feasibility certification work in the last two years on top of careful market investigation and product design.
The ARJ21 branch-line plane developed by the China Aviation Industry Corporation I (AVIC I) and the ERJ145 branch-line plane developed by AVIC II and a Brazilian partner, are going on well, Sun said.
The new ARJ21 plane with 78 seats is designed mainly in China and can be developed into a family of products. Its engine and main equipment will be bought from foreign countries. The plane is expected to go on the market in 2007.
Hafei, a subsidiary of AVIC II, has established a joint venture with the Brazil Aviation Industry Company to produce the 35- to 50-seat ERJ145 plane which will be put into use at the end of 2003.
At the end of 2001, China had only 1,029 civil aircraft. Experts predict that China's aviation market in the next 20 years will grow by 7.6 percent per year on average. And China will need 1,900 medium or large aircraft and become the second largest aviation market in the world after the United States.
(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2003)
