China flies ahead of India in developing indigenous plane

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China has successfully completed an 80-minute first flight of its indigenous passenger aircraft that it had conceived in 2008. India, on the other hand, has not moved its idea of Regional Transport Aircraft (RTA) from papers since 2007.
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Called C919, the Chinese plane is almost the size of the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737-800 and has the carrying capacity of 158-168 passengers.

Also read: Beijing should see India as a threat, warns Chinese think tank

"The first aircraft rolled out on November 2, 2015 and we have 570 orders from 23 customers," said the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), which developed C919.

RTA, however, is designed to ferry 50-90 passengers.

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"Effectively, it will be a 70-seater aircraft," a National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) official told ET.

Also read: US based IIT alumnus developing hybrid plane for regional flights

NAL is hopeful that after the launch of UDAN scheme by the Indian government for regional flights, RTA would get a renewed push. Even then, however, the first flight could be a decade away.

(Image source Aviation International News)
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