| Homemade jumbo to be built in Shanghai, Xi'an |
SHANGHAI, Apr. 7 -- A Chinese official said yesterday that home-developed jumbo aircraft will eventually be assembled in Shanghai and Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.
Though the project is still in the initial planning phase, Xi'an is expected to shoulder about 50 percent and 60 percent of the workload in manufacturing jumbo airliners and airfreighters respectively, said Jin Qiansheng, deputy director of the administrative committee of Xi'an Yanliang State Aviation High-tech Industry Base.
The Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense disclosed that Shanghai will be the assembly base when it announced last week that the country would launch jumbo aircraft manufacturing.
"Yanliang is the only state-level aviation industry base, and it has China's strongest research and development force in the aviation sector. It will play an important role in developing the country's own jumbo aircraft," Jin said at an investment and trade forum in Xi'an.
However, Jin said China will need at least another 10 years before it could make the first jumbo.
Only the United States, Russia, France, Germany, Britain and Spain now have the ability to build jumbo aircraft, with Boeing and Airbus taking the lion share of the international market.
"China's jumbo aircraft will initially target the domestic market. But the ultimate aim is to compete with Boeing and Airbus on the international market," Jin said.
|
|
