Jetliner assembly spurs 2020 goal

Officials and staff of the China Aviation Industry Corp attend a ceremony to mark the start of assembling the prototype of its first home-grown commercial jet, the ARJ-21, in Shanghai on Friday. The ARJ-21 will come off the production line by the end of 2007 and start test flights in March 2008. AFP

China is a step closer to its goal of building a large passenger jet by 2020 after final assembly work began on the ARJ-21, its first home-grown regional jetliner, in Shanghai on Friday.

A company will be formed "very soon" for the large passenger jet project, said Zhang Yunchuan, Minister of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, who was in Shanghai on Friday for a ceremony to mark the ARJ-21's final assembly.

Also on Friday, a metals industry insider told China Daily that a feasibility study for a new 3-billion-yuan ($384.6 million) factory is being carried out by three Chinese firms on the production of 12-centimeter-thick aluminium panels to be used in the manufacture of the large commercial aircraft.