The Chinese regional jet ARJ21-700 completed it’s first international shceduled flight bewteen Harbin in China and Vladivostok in Russia on the 26 October in a major milestone for the Chinese manufacturer.
Chengdu Airlines’ the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) ARJ21 was deployed on a new route between Harbin, China, and Vladivostok, Russia. This route will be flown by an ARJ21 of Chengdu Airlines twice a week during the 2019-2020 winter season.
The ARJ21 is the first commercial jet developed by China. Despite similarities between the Chinese licensed MD-80, COMAC claims the aircraft is an all original local design. The aircraft is a hybrid of Antonov wing, GE CF34-10A engines, MD-80 fuselage.
COMAC ARJ21 Performance Statistics
| ARJ21-700 | ARJ21-900 | |
| Seating capacity | 90 (1-class) | 105 (1-class) |
| 78 (2-class) | 98 (2-class) | |
| Length | 33.46 m (109 ft 9 in) | 36.35 m (119 ft 3 in) |
| Wingspan | 27.28 m (89 ft 6 in) | |
| Height | 8.44 m (27 ft 8 in) | |
| Seat pitch | 31 in (1-class), 36 & 32 in (2-class) | |
| 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) | |
| Seat width | 45.5 cm (17.9 in) | |
| Cargo capacity | 20.14 m3 (711 cu ft) | Unknown |
| Service ceiling | 11,900 m (39,000 ft) | |
ARJ-21 Flight Deck
The flight deck is fitted with five Rockwell Collins 10in x 8in high-resolution liquid crystal adaptive flight displays. Honeywell is supplying the fly-by-wire flight control system. The avionics suite is based on the Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 system, including a VHF-4000 voice and data transceiver and an IRU-4000 digital data and audio processor.
The system supports current VDL Mode 2 communications and also has the capability to support controlled pilot data link communications.
A Rockwell Collins FMS 4200 flight management system provides multiple wavepoint vertical navigation, flight time and fuel planning and prediction, standard instrument departures and standard terminal arrival routes and approaches (SIDs and STARS).
A Kaiser Electroprecision throttle control module interfaces with the Collins autopilot, autothrottle and the engine’s FADEC. The avionics suite also includes a fully integrated engine indication and crew alerting system (EICAS).
The navigation systems include Rockwell Collins solid-state weather radar, a Rockwell Collins AHS-3000 attitude heading reference system, a traffic alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) plus an air data system.
The integrated cockpit panel assemblies and the cockpit lighting control are supplied by Eaton Corporation.
Sagem is providing the flight deck control system which interfaces with the fly-by-wire system, including columns, pedals and a central console.
The aircraft carried out its first commercial flight two years ago with the launch operator Chengdu Airlines and the regional jet is mainly intended for the remote destinations in Northern and Western China.
COMAC has so far delivered 19 ARJ21 of which are currently flying for Chengdu Airlines. Other operators who have ordered the plane are respectively China Eastern Airlines, Air China, Gengis Khan Airlines, Urumqi Airlines, and Jiangxi Air.
