The final assembly program for the ARJ-21 regional jet, China's first domestically produced commercial airplane, will start tomorrow at the Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Factory. [Baidu]

The news came as the Shanghai plant delivered the 1,000th horizontal stabilizer for the tail section of the Next-Generation 737 to Boeing Co, a milestone in a cooperative project that started in the 1990s.

A senior industry official also said yesterday that China is likely to introduce foreign investors as risk-sharing partners in its effort to produce the country's first large passenger aircraft with more than 150 seats.

SAMF President Wang Wenbin said the factory will start a test program for the final assembly of the ARJ-21 advanced regional jet tomorrow.

"We are expanding facilities for general and component assembly, test flights, paint work and other tasks that will give us the capacity to produce 50 regional aircraft a year," he said.

The ARJ-21, which will be able to carry 70 to 110 passengers and fly up to 3,700 kilometers, was built with an initial investment of five billion yuan (US$646.8 million).

Its maiden flight is scheduled for next March, and the first commercial deliveries are set for the third quarter of 2009. There have been 71 orders for the jet so far from domestic firms.

Forty percent of the plane's parts are made by 19 foreign manufacturers, including General Electric, Honeywell and Parker Hannifin.

The regional jet program is China's initial effort in its longer-range plan to develop its own large aircraft. The ARJ-21 project will provide important experience in product development and market operation, industry analysts said.

In the future, China intends to form a new company to be responsible for the research and development of large aircraft, though foreign help may also be solicited.

"The global trend in the aircraft manufacturing industry is to invite foreign partners to invest and co-develop components and products and share the profits and risks," said Fu Shula, president of the China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corp, a business unit jointly owned by China Aviation Industry Corp I, or AVIC I, and AVIC II, the nation's two state-owned aircraft makers.

"China is likely to adopt the model in the development of its own big aircraft," he said.

Boeing Co, which has widespread industrial cooperation with China, said the company has no present plans to participate in that program.

"Boeing welcomes competition," said Carolyn Corvi, a vice president at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. "It's a good thing not only for us, but for our suppliers and airline customers."

There are 4,200 Boeing airplanes in operation today with parts and assemblies built in China, representing 35 percent of the US aircraft maker's world fleet.

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