China is expected to realize its "large aircraft" dream by the year 2015, a senior aviation official said Friday in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.
"Large aircraft" refer to large transportation planes with a carrying capacity exceeding 100 tons, trunk liners with more than 150 seats and other derivative special-purpose planes, Liu said.
Liu Daxiang, who is a senior official with the state-owned China Aviation Industry Corporation I and also a deputy to China's parliament or the National People's Congress (NPC), said he was happy to learn that the development of large aircraft is listed as one of the country's 16 major development plans in the 11th Five-year Guidelines for the 2006-2010 period.
"If things are going smoothly, large transport planes for military and civil purposes are expected to fly into the sky in 10 years," Liu said.
"With 5 more years of further development, the Chinese people are likely to travel by home-made 150-seat planes by 2020."
China has long considered building a large 150-200 seat commercial aircraft, rather than continuing to merely rely on Boeing of the United Sates and Europe's Airbus.
"Although China has encountered difficulties and failed in several large aircraft development plans, the experience obtained has laid a good foundation for the coming scheme," he said.
Liu, who is also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, has submitted, together with other experts, motions to the NPC's second and third annual sessions held respectively in 2003 and 2004, calling for earlier research and development of large aircraft.
(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2006)
