| COMAC C909 | |
|---|---|
 | |
.jpg) Air China C909ER | |
| General information | |
| Other name(s) | ARJ21 |
| Type | Xiangfeng |
| Role | Airliner |
| National origin | China |
| Manufacturer | Comac |
| Designer | |
| Status | In production, in service |
| Primary users | Chengdu Airlines[1] |
| Number built | 172 (as of 3 January 2025)[2][3] |
| History | |
| Manufactured | 2007–present[2] |
| Introduction date | 28 June 2016 withChengdu Airlines[4] |
| First flight | 28 November 2008 (2008-11-28) |
TheComac C909, originally known as theARJ21 Xiangfeng (Chinese:翔凤;pinyin:xiángfèng;lit. 'SoaringPhoenix'), is a 78–90 seatregional jet manufactured by the Chinese state-owned aerospace companyComac.
Development of the ARJ21 began in March 2002, led by the state-ownedACAC consortium. The first prototype was rolled out on 21 December 2007, and made its maiden flight on 28 November 2008 from Shanghai. It received itsCAAC Type Certification on 30 December 2014 and was introduced on 28 June 2016 byChengdu Airlines. The ACAC consortium was reorganized in 2009 as part of Comac and the jet was rebranded as the C909 in November 2024.
It features a 25°swept,supercritical wing designed byAntonov and twin rear-mountedGeneral Electric CF34 engines. By 2025, 172 airframes had been delivered.[2]
In 1985,Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Company, now a part of Comac,[5] launched a "troubled" partnership withMcDonnell Douglas to co-produce theMD-80, a similar-looking small jet aircraft.[6][7] After producing 20 MD-80s, the joint venture eventually collapsed, but China refused to return the tooling used.[8] Western analysts state that the ARJ21 is "heavily derived" from the MD-80, including its 1980s-era airframe.[6] However, Chinese state media claim that the ARJ21 is an indigenous design.[9]
The development of the ARJ21 (Advanced Regional Jet) was a key project in the"10th Five-Year Plan" ofChina. The project officially began in March 2002 and was led by the state-ownedACAC consortium. The maiden flight of the ARJ21 was initially planned to take place in 2005 with commercial service beginning 18 months later.[10] The programme became eight years behind schedule.[11]The design work was delayed and the final trial production stage did not begin until June 2006.[12]
The first prototype (serial number 101) rolled out on 21 December 2007,[13] with a maiden flight on 28 November 2008 at Shanghai's Dachang Airfield.[citation needed] The aircraft completed a long-distance test flight on 15 July 2009, flying fromShanghai toXi'an in 2 hours 19 minutes, over a distance of 1,300 km. The second ARJ21 (serial number 102) completed the same test flight route on 24 August 2009. The third aircraft (serial number 103) similarly completed its first test flight on 12 September 2009.[14] The fourth aircraft (CN 104) flew by November 2010. By August 2011, static, flutter and crosswind flight tests had been completed.[15]
The ACAC consortium was reorganized in 2009 and became a part ofCOMAC.[16]
AC104 returned to China on 28 April 2014, after completing natural-icing tests in North America. This was the first time a turbofan-powered regional jet independently developed by China had flown abroad to carry out flight tests in special weather conditions. At the same time, other flight-test aircraft covered more than 30,000 km across Asia, America, Europe, and the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Natural-icing tests are required for airworthiness certification, and conducting these tests outside China showed it was feasible to do certification tests for civil aircraft in other countries.[17]
The first production aircraft flew on 18 June 2014.[11] and AC104 completed an airspeed calibration flight on 30 October. Route-proving started on 29 October 2014, and AC105 made 83 flights between ten airports in Chengdu, Guiyang, Guilin, Haikou, Fuzhou, Zhoushan, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Yinchuan and Xianyang. The cumulative flight time was 173 hours and 55 minutes.[18] By November 2014, AC104 had completed 711 flights in 1,442 hours and 23 minutes. Certification tests included stall, high-speed, noise and simulated and natural icing.[19] AC105 returned toYanliang airport on December 16, 2014, fromXi'an Xianyang International Airport after the last function and reliability flight. This completed the testing for the ARJ21-700 airworthiness certificate.
The ARJ21-700 received its Type Certification under Chapter 25 of the Chinese civil aviation regulations from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), on 30 December 2014.[20] The certification program for the CAAC required 5,000 hours.[21]An ARJ21-700 completed a final demonstration flight on 12 September 2015 before being delivered to a customer.
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On 29 November 2015, COMAC delivered the first ARJ21-700 toChengdu Airlines.[22] The first commercial flight took off from ChengduShuangliu Airport on 28 June 2016, landing inShanghai two hours later,[23][24] one day after its commercial flight was approved by the CAAC. During the summer schedule period of 2016, i.e. until 29 October 2016, the ARJ21-700 was scheduled to operate three weekly rotations between Chengdu and Shanghai Hongqiao. 85 flight segments were operated by ARJ21 (81 by B-3321, four by B-3322).
In June 2018 an ARJ21-700+ was proposed for 2021 with weight and drag reductions. Subsequently, a -900stretch version was designed to accommodate 115 all-economy seats, similar to theBombardier CRJ900,Embraer E175-E2 orMitsubishi MRJ90.Structurally conservative and designed forhot and high operations, the ARJ21's 25 t (55,000 lb) empty weight is higher than initially targeted in 2002, and also higher than competing aircraft. In 2018 anexecutive version was in finalassembly and acargo variant was proposed.[25]
_Air_Central_Comac_ARJ21-700P2F_B-3388_%40_Singapore_Airshow_2024-02-25.jpg)
The ARJ21 COMAC Converted Freighter (CCF) conversion program began in May 2020; the type certification and testing program was completed in December 2022 and the type certified by theCAAC on 1 January 2023.[26]
The first two ARJ21 converted freighters (B-3329 and B-3388) were delivered to customers on 30 October 2023. The two airframes were initially delivered toChengdu Airlines in 2018 in the passenger configuration and were subsequently withdrawn for the CCF program in 2021. Airframe B-3329 was handed over toYTO Cargo Airlines which intends to operate the type on short-haul international routes while airframe B-3388 was delivered toAir Central (based inZhengzhou, China) for flights on domestic routes.[27] The converted freighters have a maximum payload capacity of 10 tonnes and a range of about 1500nautical miles (2780 km).[27]
In early July 2017, the CAAC certified the ARJ21 for mass production.[28] On 6 March 2020, the first ARJ21 assembled at the second production line in Pudong, took its first production test flight.[29] The second production line, with a production capacity of up to 30 jets a year, is located at the same facility that assembles theC919.[29]
In October 2024, images of an ARJ21 in C909 livery emerged.[30] Comac officially announced the rebranding at theZhuhai Air Show in November 2024.[31] This brings the naming in line with the convention of Comac's other two programmes, theC919 andC929.
Several sources have noted that the ARJ21 closely resembles theMcDonnell Douglas MD-80 and theMD-90, which were produced under licence in China.[7][32] Comac states that the ARJ21 is a completely indigenous design.[33][34][35] The ARJ21's development did depend heavily on foreign suppliers, including engines and avionics from theUnited States. The ARJ21 has a newsupercritical wing designed byAntonov with asweepback of 25 degrees andwinglets.[36][37][38] Some of China'ssupercomputers have been used to design parts for the ARJ21.[39]
Members of the ACAC consortium, which was formed to develop the aircraft, will manufacture major framework components of the aircraft:
The inflight power source of COMAC C909 isGeneral ElectricCF-34 turbofan,[40] which is also widely used on other regional jets like theMitsubishi CRJ andEmbraer E-Jets.
COMAC choseCollins AerospacePro Line 21 integrated avionics system (IAS) as their flight deck avionics solution,[41][42]they also supply theFMS-4200 flight management system (FMS) for the C909, which can also be seen onMitsubishi CRJ550/700/900/1000 regional aircraft and the weather radar.
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On February 20, 2024, it is reported that the Chinese state-owned Henan Civil Aviation Development and Investment Group ordered 6 C909 variants including the C909EMJ.[43]
The C909CCF (COMAC converted freighter) is designed with a maximum payload of 9,467kg and is compatible with PMC, PAG and AKE cargo containers.[26] The first aircraft began conversion operations on 22 December, 2022 atGAMECO in Guangzhou, China.[44] The first batch of conversions involves two C909ER [ARJ21-700 ER] aircraft originally built and operated by Chengdu Airlines and returned to COMAC in 2021.[45]
_at_CGO_02.jpg)
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As of October 2018, there were six aircraft in commercial service with an average monthly utilization rate of around 30 hours.[21]
By the end of 2021, 66 aircraft had been delivered to customers.[46] And by the end of 2022, 100 aircraft have been delivered.[47]
As of 31 August 2018, Comac had 221 outstanding orders, after 23 deliveries to launch operatorChengdu Airlines who put it in service on 28 June 2016.[48]
Executing orders[2]The following table is current as of 15 March 2025. Note that the numbers listed in the table have been obtained by cross-referencing the two web-based sources cited in the footnotes. Also note that the numbers listed are for the initial annual deliveries to (non-COMAC) commercial operators and do not necessarily reflect the number of airframes currently operated by each listed operator; as a result, the total number delivered may exceed the total number of airframes cited in the original contracts.
| Date | Airline | Confirmed (+Options) | Deliveries | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |||
| 8/30/2019 |  Air China | 35 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 9 | 9[3][2] | 1 | |||||
| 1/2010 | Chengdu Airlines | 30 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 5[3] | ||
| 8/30/2019 | OTT Airlines (Subsidiary ofChina Eastern Airlines) | 35 | 2 | 5 | 10 | 7[49] | 2 | ||||||
| 11/2020 | China Express Airlines | 50 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2[3] | 1 | |||||
| 8/30/2019 | China Southern Airlines | 35 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 9 | 9[3] | ||||||
| 12/2019 | China Flight General Aviation Company (CFGAC) | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1[50] | ||||||||
| 8/20/2018 | Genghis Khan Airlines | 25(+25) | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1[49] | |||||||
| 1/2020 | Jiangxi Air | 5 | 3 | 2 | |||||||||
| Urumqi Air | 5 | ||||||||||||
| 12/2022 |  TransNusa | 30 | 1 | 1 | 1[49] | ||||||||
| 11/2024 | Hainan Airlines | 40 | |||||||||||
| 11/2024 | Colorful Guizhou Airlines | 20(+10) | |||||||||||
| Totals | 312(+35) | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 12 | 22 | 22 | 34 | 22 | 35 | 4 | |
| 161 | |||||||||||||
Reported Orders
| Date | Airline | Type | Options | Rights | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ARJ21-700 | ARJ21-700F | ARJ21-700P2F | ARJ21B | ||||
| September 2003 | Shanghai Airlines[51] | 5 | |||||
| Shandong Airlines[51] | 10 | ||||||
| Shenzhen Financial Leasing[51] | 20 | ||||||
| March 2004 | Xiamen Airlines[52][a] | 37[citation needed] | |||||
| December 2007 | | ||||||
| December 2007 |  9nes[55][56] | 2 | |||||
| March 2008 |  | ||||||
| Joy Air[58] | 50 | ||||||
| May 2010 | Merukh Enterprises[59] | 10 | |||||
| 11 November 2014 |  Republic of Congo[60] | 4 | |||||
| 9 March 2015 | ICBC Leasing[61] | 30 | |||||
| 30 August 2019 | China Eastern Airlines[62] | 35 | |||||
| October 2022 | Longhao Airlines | 50[45] | |||||
| November 2022 | YTO Cargo Airlines[citation needed] | 70 | 2[45] | ||||
| 20 September 2023 |  GallopAir[63] | 12 | 3[64] | ||||
| Totals | 345 Orders | 20 | |||||
An Indonesian airline will fly with its entire fleet consisting of 60 ARJ21 aircraft, although as of now that airline is not specified.[65]
| Official designation | ARJ21-700 STD | ARJ21-700 ER | ARJ21-700 CCF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing name | C909STD | C909ER | CBJ909 | C909CCF |
| Cockpit crew | Two | |||
| Seating capacity | 90 (1-class) 78 (2-class) | 20 (VIP) | Cargo | |
| Seat pitch | 31 in (1-class), 36 & 32 in (2-class) | VIP | / | |
| Length | 33.46 m (109 ft 9 in) | |||
| Wingspan | 27.28 m (89 ft 6 in) | |||
| Wing area | 79.86 m2 (859.6 sq ft) | |||
| Wing sweepback | 25 degrees | |||
| Height | 8.44 m (27 ft 8 in) | |||
| Cabin width | 3.14 m (10 ft 4 in) | |||
| Cabin height | 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) | |||
| Aisle width | 48.3 cm (19.0 in) | VIP | / | |
| Seat width | 45.5 cm (17.9 in) | VIP | / | |
| OEW | 24,955 kg (55,016 lb) | 24,900 kg (54,900 lb) | 24,666 kg (54,379 lb) | |
| MZFW | 33,890 kg (74,710 lb) | 34,163 kg (75,317 lb) | ||
| MTW | 40,580 kg (89,460 lb) | 43,580 kg (96,080 lb) | ||
| MTOW | 40,500 kg (89,300 lb) | 43,500 kg (95,900 lb) | ||
| MLW | 37,665 kg (83,037 lb) | 40,455 kg (89,188 lb) | ||
| Max. payload | 8,935 kg (19,698 lb) | 8,000 kg (18,000 lb) | 9,467 kg (20,871 lb) | |
| Cargo capacity | 20.14 m3 (711 cu ft) | 115.48 m3 (4,078 cu ft) | ||
| Take-off run at MTOW | 1,700 m (5,600 ft) | 1,900 m (6,200 ft) | ||
| Service ceiling | 11,900 m (39,000 ft) | |||
| Max. operatingspeed | Mach 0.82 (870 km/h; 470 kn; 541 mph) | |||
| Normal cruise speed | Mach 0.78 (828 km/h; 447 kn; 514 mph) | |||
| Range (fully loaded) | 1,200 nmi (2,200 km; 1,400 mi) | 2,000 nmi (3,700 km; 2,300 mi) | ||
| Maximumfuel load | 10,386 kg (22,897 lb) | |||
| Powerplants (2x) | General Electric CF34-10A[66] | |||
| Enginethrust | 75.87 kN (17,057 lbf) | |||
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