Shanghai Daily: Business - shanghaidaily.com
CHINA'S first homemade passenger jet ARJ21 rolled off the production line in Shanghai yesterday marking a major step forward for the domestic aviation market. The ARJ21 jet's name, "Xiang Feng" - Flying Phoenix - was also unveiled at the roll-out ceremony. The name was chosen after a global competition on the Internet, said a spokesman for the China Aviation Industry Corporation I (AVIC I), the jet's designer and producer. The first ARJ21-700 jet, powered by a turbofan engine, can carry 90 passengers with a maximum range of 2,000 nautical miles. "China's aviation industry stepped into a new era today," Lin Zuoming, the general manager of AVIV I, said at the inauguration ceremony at the Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Factory. Shenzhen Airlines added to the impressive ceremony by signing a deal with AVIC I to buy 100 ARJ jets. The maker had received orders for 71 jets before the Shenzhen deal, mainly from carriers and plane leasing units like Shanghai