C919 first flights face year-long delay [News]

TEST FLIGHTS for China´s first large commercial aircraft, the C919, are being put back a year to 2015. The intended dates for certification (which was originally set for 2015) and commercial deliveries (2016) have also been pushed to a year later. The C919 ´iron bird´ test rig was completed last December. State-owned Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (Comac) is building the aircraft in Shanghai. A senior Comac official, Xu Lian, attributed the delay to problems arising from Chinese engineers´ lack of experience in such huge projects and to technical obstacles. Xu declined to give details of the obstacles but commented that the delay was expected as this is China´s first largeaircraft project.