China eyes big jetliner test flight by 2014 -paper

SHANGHAI, Dec 29 (Reuters) - China aims to conduct its first test flight of a domestically developed large commercial jetliner by 2014 and to begin deliveries in 2016, the China Business News reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed executives from aircraft manufacturer Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC).
The company broke ground on Monday on an aircraft assembly plant near Shanghai that the executives said would be capable of producing 20 of the large jetliners, code-named the C919, and 50 regional ARJ21 jets per year by 2016, the newspaper reported.
Beijing has made public an ambitious goal of manufacturing large passenger jets with more than 150 seats and freighters capable of handling more than 100 tonnes of cargo to take on Boeing (BA.N) and Airbus (EAD.PA) (EAD.DE).
After the delivery of the first C919 passenger jet, China will start working on larger jets with 250 seats, COMAC executives were quoted as saying.
China has not yet announced any orders for the C919 but has 208 orders for the ARJ21, including five firm orders from General Electric's (GE.N) aircraft leasing arm, GE Commercial Aviation Services. (Reporting by Fang Yan and Edmund Klamann)